Finding Family
by Ghostunderasheet
Summary: If you don't have family, pick a new one - in the Mafia. Easier said than done when trust is hard to come by. Tsuna didn't plan for any of this to happen. But now he's got a bodyguard with Lightning Flame who hates his dad Iemitsu and might want him dead. And she's Mukuro's childhood friend and co-Estraneo escapee. And on Hibari's Disciplinary Committee. Here we go.
1. The Prologue

Prologue

* * *

Subject L-13 did not remember a time before the Estraneo. She had intentionally sealed those memories away from herself with what paltry mist flames she could scrape together. Her main Flame was Lightening, so it was difficult for her. The seal she placed on her memories would later be strengthened with the help of Rokudo Mukuro, but for now it was a flimsy thing that broke every now and then. Subject L-13 did not like to remember her time Before the Cage because it was painful. She chose not to remember why it hurt so much, but suspected it was because Before had been happy for her and the Cage was too jarring in comparison to cope with. So she sealed that part of herself away and didn't look at it.

The experiments were horrible. At first, the only thing they did to her was pump chemicals into her arms and neck. It was painful and terrifying because she didn't know what they were doing to her, but not as invasive as the surgeries some other Subjects went though and not as physically or mentally debilitating as it could have been. Then a day came that the chemicals stopped hurting. The scientists got very excited about that, tried lots of different chemicals and were both ecstatic and sadistically disappointed about the fact she had no reaction to any of them.

Poisons, chemicals, pathogens, and any foreign substance entering Subject L-13's body no longer had any effect.

New experiments would begin shortly. These would consist of surgeries.

* * *

The experiments were all housed together in communal cells that were visible to each other through the bars, approximately twenty Subjects to a cell. Subject L-13 knew it was a cruelty and not a blessing.

Because they were all in visible contact, they all saw when one amongst their numbers did not return to the cells. They all saw each other get dragged away, some fighting others limp, for experimentation and wondered if that person would come back this time. They all saw each other's injuries, but could do little to nothing about them. They saw the hopelessness in each other's eyes and the fear. They all saw that there wasn't enough food to go around and careful eyes watched those that tended to give up their portions for the smaller Subjects to ensure that they still ate, even just a bite. They all saw thin, worn scrubs become dirtier and looser as the children in them became gaunter and more broken. They all hated it.

Some Subjects, the older Subjects, were known to have been descendants and blood children of the actual Estraneo Family itself. Neither the scientists nor the other Subjects treated them any differently. Some Subjects had been kidnapped from other Families for their Flame potential. Some Subjects simply scooped up off the streets for need of more bodies. Subject L-13 wasn't sure which of these origins belonged to her, and she didn't think it mattered. The Estraneo treated her the same, and so did the other subjects.

That was the truly strange thing in her eyes, having grown accustomed to cruelty. All of the Subjects treated each other as kindly as they were able to. There was no fighting over meals and on occasion some Subjects would even volunteer to switch places with each other so that another could recover slightly. The Subjects cared about each other as much as they knew how. Subject L-13 knew that it was strange, but not unwelcome.

* * *

Subject L-13 absolutely fucking adored Enzio.

He was a Sky, a few years older than her, she guesstimated him to be about eight though no one knew their ages for sure any longer because it was impossible to tell how long they'd been there. Enzio was kind. He shared his food with her and held her and the other youngest children close in the night. He comforted her when she came back from her first surgery as best he could. He brought many of the children together and drew them in.

She became his Lightning and he became her Sky.

Tony was their Sun and Chikusa their Rain. Clelia was their Storm and Aidano their Mist. Normally it would be impossible for children that young to have active and useful Flames, much less go about establishing Guardian Bonds and Harmonies, but the Estraneo had no use for subjects that couldn't manifest Flames. They found a way to bring them out early. It wasn't healthy, it wasn't humane and it killed sixteen percent of the Subjects right off the bat, but it worked. And that's all the scientists cared about. All the Subjects cared about was each other. They were young, broken and scared, but they were complete. For a short time.

Tony was the first of them to die. Clelia had just come back from a particularly crippling surgery, her eyes were ruined and she couldn't walk, and he was attempting to heal her with his Sun Flames. The scientists came to take Clelia away again and he fought back. Tony did not survive the attempt. They dragged a sobbing and blinded Clelia away in the same direction they dragged Tony's body. Clelia did not come back. She was the second of them to die. Enzio was the third. They never found out what happened to him exactly. It didn't matter.

His death damn near killed the few who were left.

* * *

Subject L-13 just stopped what she was doing and screamed. Granted, what she had been doing was sitting there shivering but the screaming was still very sudden. Sudden and terrifying because it had happened at the exact same time that Aidano and Chikusa had burst into a seizure and tears respectively.

She was screaming because there was something wrong! It wasn't supposed to happen! Something was missing and it hurt more than missing a limb! It hurt deep inside her chest in a way that none of their experiments or scalpels ever could reach. Something had just torn out her heart and cut away a piece of her soul with it. Dear god, why did it hurt so bad? What was wrong? Who was responsible? Who did she need to kill to make it stop?! Subject L-13 did not know.

The other Subjects tried to help them, not knowing what was wrong. A growling blonde boy named Ken went to comfort Chikusa through his tears. Other Subjects went to Aidano's side. Rokudo Mukuro went to help Subject L-13.

* * *

Rokudo Mukuro was not a kind person. He had once been a very sweet little boy who liked his mother, absolutely worshiped his aunt, laughed and smiled often. When his mother had given him up for experimentation without a word of protest, he had twisted. And when his aunt did not come for him he had damn near broken.

He saw the other Subject breaking in front of him. The larger part of Mukuro wanted to do nothing to help her. He wanted someone else to be in as much pain as he was, as lost and alone as he was. Just as broken. Just as hopeless. The rest of him simply didn't care. He didn't even know the other Subject's name. Something, and he was not sure then what it was, prompted him to help her anyway.

Mukuro went to the tiny blonde girl, tucked her entire, frail body into his lap, and comforted her, whispering soft meaningless words in his native Italian and rocking her gently. When she did not calm, he reached out with his Flames. That was all it took for Mukuro realized that the girl's Sky had just died and that she was feeling the pain of a severed Guardian Bond. Most Subjects wouldn't have been able to identify it for what it was, but Mukuro had been raised with the intention of one day taking over the Family (even if things had changed since then) and had been taught things that the others hadn't.

Mukuro looked at the sobbing girl in his arms and reached for his Mist Flames. He cradled her until they both fell asleep.

This would change everything.

* * *

In most other lifetimes in most other universes, Subject L-13 would not have received assistance from Rokudo Mukuro that day and would subsequently not survive the loss of her Sky. She would then either die or be driven insane, taking no overly notable action and prompting no significant changes to the general timeline. Here and now however, this was not the case. In this universe, Subject L-13 lived and retained her will. And that changed everything.

When Subject L-13 regained consciousness, for it had not been true sleep she had been in but instead unrestful but blessedly dreamless unconsciousness, there was a certain clarity and stability to her world that had disappeared for a time. She had been inches away from Discord and she knew it. Hell, she'd damn near gone into Flame Rejection. Because Enzio had died.

She sat up and looked around. Adriano was dead on the floor, not having survived the Severed Bond. They had not yet taken his body away and no one would go near it. At least Chikusa looked okay. She was being held by someone who was not Enzio, which was strange. But not unwelcome.

The older boy, he looked about seven, smiled at her. "You woke up," he observed.

Subject L-13 blinked at him. She looked back at Adriano's body. She thought of Enzio, Tony and Clelia and wondered what happened to their bodies. Then she spoke. "I am going to kill them all."

The older boy frowned. "We're all planning it, it's just not possible."

"It doesn't matter," she reported factually, "I don't care anymore if I survive the attempt. I'm going to kill them all. I'll rip them apart with my bare hands. I'll paint the walls in blood for what they have done to us. They wanted weapons and they made us monsters. Well they're monsters too and they were monsters first. I'll kill them for it. I'll kill them all. Every last one of them."

The older boy wasn't frowning anymore. Actually, the smile from before was back, though more bloodthirsty this time. "Is that so?"

* * *

The Estraneo Family had tried to turn children into weapons. They had succeeded. They did not however, break them. Broken Flames were useless, dangerous wild animals that didn't have the presence of mind to do anything more than rage around in a killing spree until they were put down like rabid dogs. The Subjects were kept within control only because they had no hope. Learned helplessness was a powerful thing. Because the children did not believe they could possibly ever escape, they did not try. Even as they were given powers and strengths they had not originally possessed they did not try, because they saw others who struggled and died and they remembered being beaten back down by the adults with ease.

It was a completely functional system.

Until Subject L-13 woke up one day, marched up to the bars, channeled her Lightning Flames through her hands without a medium of any kind and fucking twisted them like pipe cleaners. She then proceeded to free the other Subjects, who mostly ran like scattered rabbits towards the nearest exit and into the streets. There were three exceptions. Subjects K-14, M-69 and C-49 joined L-13.

They went looking for the guards. They killed them. They also killed the scientists. And the Boss. They killed everyone. The Slaughter of the Estraneo took less than a day.

No more children died that day.

* * *

Subject L-13 laughed madly as she physically tore limbs off of the scientists one at a time with her Lightning reinforced strength. She was vaguely aware of some of the other Subjects helping her but not entirely. Internally, her Severed Guardian Bond, though patched somehow, still ached and pained her horribly, numbing her surroundings. Inflicting pain felt good. It helped fill some of the emptiness inside her where Enzio's Flames used to rest, keeping her warm. Blood splattered across her face and she laughed harder, not aware of the tears coursing down her cheeks as they cut a clear path through the red stains on her skin.

The other three saw. They did not comment. They were also making their first kills and could not afford to be distracted. Everything was awash in blood.

* * *

Most of the Estraneo Subjects ran towards the city, for one reason or another, and most of them did not survive to the end of the month. The Estraneo base was on the edge of a city. Which one it did not matter. They were promptly killed by enemy Mafioso thinking them spies or Estraneo loyalists, killed by the cold or the hunger, killed by infection and untreated wounds, killed by their own stupidity or the cruelty of others. Killed by inexperience or ignorance. Very few, if any, survived. Their fates do not matter here.

The four who had perpetrated the Slaughter of the Estraneo who had dared Cage them ran in the opposite direction, into the forest. They ran and they kept running. They only stopped in a grassy meadow, surrounded by tall grasses and colorful flowers in the Italian Summer heat.

It was Ken who started laughing first. He laughed, quietly at first, then deeply, grabbing Chikusa about the waist and twirling him around, shouting happy nonsense about freedom and joy. Chikusa could not bring himself to celebrate so soon after his Sky's death, but smiled with his friend and quietly wept tears of joy that he hoped no one else saw. Mukuro laughed too before collapsing onto his back, moving his limbs through the weeds and flowers as though attempting to make a snow angel with the grass. Subject L-13 sat and wove a flower crown for each of them, smiling the whole time. She also wove a flower crown for Enzio before setting it aside.

They were all still young and still afraid and still damn close to broken, but they were alive. And they had each other. Things were looking up, for the first time in a long time.

* * *

It was an unspoken and automatic fact that Mukuro was in charge. The Slaughter may not have been his idea, but he was the oldest, arguably the sanest and clearly the most responsible. Ken was a bit too animalistic and had a beta personality anyway. Chikusa barely talked and couldn't seem to summon up much resembling emotion at the moment. And Subject L-13 was clearly fucked in the head right now and much too young besides.

"We'll be okay as long as we stick together," Mukuro ordered eventually, when the adrenaline wore off and the truth sunk in and they were just so tired they needed to sleep. "I can handle this."

They believed him.

(They were wrong.)


	2. The First Meeting

The Meeting Which Began it All

* * *

Nalea stepped out of the taxi and slammed the door, a single duffel bag over her shoulder. She could already feel herself being watched and felt her body relax reflexively. It was a tell, she knew, but she was not yet to the point where she could brace for attack without giving herself away and, considering who was watching her, it was no use trying to hide. Besides, she was expected.

There was nothing she could do but enter the house. Nalea had insisted that the house be in her name as a part of her payment for this job. While she may have had no say in whether or not she ultimately accepted it when the 'offer' came from that rat bastard, she was damn fine by now at ensuring that the payment at least was worth it. Owning a property in a Sanctuary was a smart move and she'd seized the opportunity. Nalea let the duffel drop to the floor.

Inspecting the house revealed that the kitchen was completely empty and overall so was everything else. Nalea's new house (because it wasn't a 'home' yet and would probably never be) was just two doors down from the Sawada residence, fenced in with white picket and about as normal looking as it was possible to get. The inside wasn't much better. There were no weapons caches, no secret rooms, false bottoms to drawers, bulletproof or reflective windows, reinforcements on the walls and no security systems to be found whatsoever. Hell, Nalea considered herself lucky there was even a lock on the door. Iemitsu had left her just as defenseless as he had left his family. That rat bastard.

That was fine though. She could handle this situation. Nalea could install all that herself, even if it might take some time to get properly established. And she could redecorate while she was at it, since that fucker Iemitsu had painted everything that could be painted orange. The fucker probably thought he was being subtle. Green was better, maybe a softer, off white mint…? Yes, that sounded nice. And a secret basement. That was a must-have. Maybe two? It would depend on the plumbing systems of the neighboring houses, but she could probably swing it. One for exercising and another for separate, more _delicate_ Mafia pursuits. Yes, that was a very good idea.

Figures the bastard wouldn't even leave her furniture. Fortunately though it wouldn't cut into her savings. Nalea had a significant nest-egg waiting for her in Mafia Land. Looking at the empty kitchen, she wished she were there instead. Her apartment might not be home - she hadn't had a home since Enzio died, though for a while it had looked like she could have found one with her boys if they'd managed to stay together long enough - but it was hers at the very least.

But she had a job to do and a contract to fulfill.

"Reborn," she greeted without turning around, sensing his presence. "I take it he at least saw fit to warn you I was coming." If he hadn't, the Greatest Hitman in the World may very well have simply killed her upon arrival for straying too close to his current charge.

"He did," Reborn confirmed.

"And yet I doubt he gave you either a copy of my contract or my profile," Nalea acknowledged, reaching into the inner pocket of her leather jacket and holding out a rolled parchment. Contracts had to be written on parchment made from specifically Flame-bread goats so that it wouldn't burn while maintaining an imprint of each party's Flame Signature.

Reborn took it as was his due and opened it. "Why do you have so many 'mental health days'?" he asked politely.

Nalea did not mistake the demand for the question it was phrased as. "So that I can vent my bloodlust somewhere without harming civilians. I'm usually satisfied on the job, but as this is, nominally, a bodyguard mission and is therefore unlikely to fulfil my usual levels of activity. Bad things happen when Baby Hitmen get restless."

"Or so you convinced Iemitsu," Reborn noted.

Nalea smirked slightly and shrugged lightly. She would need some of those days to get a handle on her bloodlust, but not nearly as many as she had put herself down for. The free time would (hopefully) come in useful eventually.

Reborn could read minds. He saw all of this in her eyes. "You don't consider this a bodyguard mission," he noted.

Nalea's expression was deadpan. "You are the Greatest Hitman in the World. You don't need _me_ here. You don't need _anybody_ here, to even suggest otherwise is practically an insult. I could be an fucking Arcobaleno and I'd probably still slow you down. No, he sent me here for something else," she informed him bitterly. "The man's a bastard but despite everything he really _isn't_ an idiot. I'm here for several reasons. He wants me as one of his son's Guardians, first and foremost. Thankfully he can't actually force that one so it's never going to happen. He had no greater use for me elsewhere and he's got enough dirt on me to keep me leashed. Plus there's the added benefit of making me miserable, something I'm sure he enjoys."

"You're smart," Reborn complemented, testing her.

"Not smart enough or I wouldn't be here," Nalea dismissed. Yes, she had her ego… once. Not anymore. It was her sense of honor that had gotten her into this shitshow. Nalea had exorcised as many as her bad habits (dangerous personality traits) like ego, jealousy and anger as best she could. She had not rid herself of her bloodlust entirely and her patience could still use some work, but simply being aware of one's weaknesses helped lessen them and in time perhaps she could eliminate those parts of herself as well.

"And here you are," Reborn acknowledged.

Nalea set her jaw. "Here I am," she agreed.

* * *

Sawada Nana was not a stupid woman. She had known from their first meeting that her husband was keeping secrets and _chosen_ to trust him anyway. She had trusted him through the gaping distance, through the years they'd been apart. She'd trusted him by choice, because that was what a wife was supposed to do - she was sure. She had trusted him implicitly and absolutely, right up until her baby boy got dragged into whatever it was that caused explosions at all hours of the day and made her son come home bandaged, sooty and exhausted. Nana could see plain as day that her husband's secrets had come for their child, just as she could see that Reborn-chan was not a child at all. But habits were hard things to break, and she kept on her oblivious mask, smiling and telling herself it wasn't real until she could figure out a way to ask for the truth.

Then young Nalea knocked on her door with a bow and a smile that probably wasn't supposed to look so sad and tired to Nana's experienced, mothering eyes and introduced herself.

"Hello, come in! You must be one of my Tsu-kun's friends! Make yourself at home, you can take off your goggles if you like," Nana invited.

"Oh, I'm afraid not ma'am," Nalea denied politely, "I have an eye condition so I wear my goggles at all times. I hope you don't mind."

"Of course dear, I'm so sorry…" and the pleasantries continued until Nana had the girl seated at the kitchen table with a mug of hot chocolate and a somewhat baffled expression on her face. Nalea's awkward response to common decency and manners made Nana frown slightly, but she was obviously trying to be polite despite not being sure exactly how so she didn't take offense. _Maybe_ , Nana thought, _the younger ones might be looser with their secrets. Maybe I can find out what exactly my Tsu-kun needs protecting from_.

"I know," Sawada Nana began uncertainty from across the kitchen table from her guest, biting herself back before gathering her courage and continuing onward, "that something is happening. And I know that my son… might not always be safe."

Nalea stared at the older woman uncertainty, automatically loosening her muscles into a relaxed stance that made it easy to attack or defend. It was in her contract that she was _absolutely forbidden_ from informing Sawada Nana the truth of her husband and son's situation. Those orders chafed at her, but breaking the Omerta and the contract in one go was not something she could handle the repercussions of. Nalea wasn't an idiot, nor was life fair. So she said nothing and let Nana speak.

"I'm not going to ask," Nana assured her, seeing her face pale ever so slightly under the gold-rimmed tinted leather goggles that hid her eyes. "It's just… keep my boy safe, please," she requested. "Just that. Just keep my boy safe so he can come home at the end of the day. I just want him to be happy."

"I…" Nalea paused, uncertain how to phrase what she wanted to say without giving too much away. It was just her luck to get into this sort of situation on the first fucking day. "That's what I was hired for," she confessed. "I may not _like_ my employer, but that does not mean that I will fail at my job. I am a professional. And I promise you, Sawada Nana, that I will protect your boy."

"Your employer?" Nana asked. "Is he…" she trailed off hopefully.

"Your husband," the girl confirmed. "Yes. There is nothing stopping me from telling you that much."

In other words, there were other things she wasn't allowed to say. Nana sighed tiredly and took a seat across from Nalea at the kitchen table. "I always knew, from the beginning, that there were things he was wasn't telling me but… I assumed that he would tell me in his own time without my asking. I waited and he never did. And now our son is a part of it."

Nalea was in _very_ dangerous territory for a number of reasons. She didn't want to break the Omerta. She didn't want to break her contract. And perhaps most importantly, she didn't want to either lie or break this woman's heart. "Ma'am, sometimes… it is possible to love a thing without knowing everything about it. But it is also possible to love a lie. I… honestly don't know… what it is exactly that… you seem to see in him. I'm contractually forbidden from answering any of your questions even if you ask me. I'd have to lie, and I'd rather not do that to you. I _can't_ tell you what's going on and what the truth is in all this mess."

"But Tsu-kun, my Tsunayoshi, you will protect him?" Nana confirmed, desperation starting to appear in her voice. "He will be safe?"

"Safe I cannot promise," Nalea apologized, "but protected? I entered a contract that I cannot afford to and more importantly _will_ not be breaking. And even aside from that, I am giving you my word, right now. I will protect your son, if I can. I am not someone who breaks promises. I will protect your son with my Dying Will." Nalea knew that her goggles would conceal the flash of green that she felt illuminate her eyes with the vow. Perhaps it was impulsive of her, but Sawada Nana was a kind woman. A good woman. She did not deserve her lot in life, married to that man. And to do her job was something that Nalea could promise.

"Thank you, Virtuoso-chan."

"Ah, you don't have to call me that," she objected slightly, changing the subject and allowing the serious atmosphere to dissipate. "My surname sounds very strange in Japanese. I understand that it's very informal in this culture, but it's odd hearing my surname with an extra syllable in it. I prefer Nalea."

"Nalea-chan then," Nana smiled and nodded. "My son will be home in a few minutes. If you want to wait for him upstairs that would be fine."

"Thank you, Nana-san."

"Call me Mama, please," the elder woman corrected.

Nalea hesitated. Would Iemitsu mind? Did _she_ mind? What the hell kind of offer was that anyway? What the fuck did that mean, even? (Wasit a trap?) Nalea smirked bitterly as she nodded. "Thank you, Mama, I will." She didn't remember ever having a Mama before; it might be interesting.

* * *

When Tsuna returned home from school that day, he did so utterly exhausted. Nothing had happened all day that was even remotely Mafia related - except for Gokudera threatening some people with dynamite, which was normal (and when had _that_ become normal?!) - and it was starting to freak him out. No, that was a lie. It _had_ been freaking him out _all day_. Tsuna hadn't seen Reborn since that morning and not knowing where Reborn was or what he was doing was not good for his mental (or physical) well being. He had been jumping at shadows, sudden noises, unexpected movements _and_ loud noises since first period and had worn himself thin. He'd also gotten a bad test grade back (13, and wasn't that auspicious) and gotten laughed at, again (resulting in Gokudera threatening people with his dynamite, as previously mentioned).

So it wasn't really much of a surprise that when school ended he waved a tired goodbye to Gokudera and Yamamoto, gave a weak acknowledgement to his mother on the way up the stairs, lugged his way to his room and collapsed face first on his bed.

Nalea was in Tsuna's room casually leaning against his wall across from the bed, watching the whole thing. She turned to Reborn and lifted an eyebrow. Did he seriously not notice an extra presence in the room? Damn, Reborn sure didn't have much to work with, did he? This was going to be a _long_ assignment.

"Dame-Tsuna."

"Mph, Reborn? Not today." He didn't even peel his face off the pillow.

"You really ought to pay more attention to your surroundings, Sawada Tsunayoshi," Nalea informed him.

Tsuna bolted upright, panicked, fell off the bed, hit his tailbone and scrambled to his feet. "Wh-who are you?! What are you doing in my room?!" he shouted.

She didn't bother answering. "So this is Sawada Tsunayoshi, huh?" Nalea inspected him. His presence was no good. He held himself like he had some sort of loser complex, and Nalea _hated_ people like that. "He looks worse than I expected, and I set my expectations pretty low already, because of his blood."

"His average test score before I got here was 17.5. He can only vault over three boxes and he _still_ can't do a full chin-up," Reborn supplied. Dame-Tsuna's physical capabilities were starting to become an insult to his ability as a teacher, and that just wouldn't be suitable. "Dame-Tsuna sucks at everything."

Nalea shrugged dismissively. "That part doesn't matter," she dismissed. All those things were things that Reborn was here to change. Those facts wouldn't last long and they sure as hell didn't tell her what _she_ wanted to know about the brat she was supposed to be protecting (unwillingly). His academics and physical capabilities were not what would make him strong in the long run. Nalea wanted to know what kind of Boss the boy would be. What kind of _Sky_.

"Uh… who are you?" Tsuna finally got up the courage to ask.

"Virtuoso Nalea." It was not a greeting so much as a statement of fact. "I'm your new bodyguard. I'm only here to get paid. I don't actually care about keeping you safe." Nalea did not extend her hand or bow. As far as she was concerned, he hadn't earned that. Most people started out deserving of at least basic manners, but by virtue of being related to Iemitsu (a black mark on his record if there ever was one) Tsuna got knocked down to bland disinterest. Basic niceties were not yet out of consideration and might be initiated later if earned.

"Safe?" Tsuna asked, utterly confused by the intimidating blonde girl who had snuck into his house. "Bodyguard?"

"From the assassins," the girl explained. "The easiest way to hurt a Mafia family is to cut off their line of succession. That means making sure there aren't any heirs left and that there won't be any new ones. Do you understand?"

"Hieee?!" Tsuna shrieked. "People are trying to kill me?!"

"Yes, Sawabaka. All the time. And I get paid to stop them." Nalea shrugged. Tsuna was getting farther and farther away from earning basic niceties and closer and closer to outright hatred, though he obviously didn't realize it.

"So you're here to keep me safe," Tsuna concluded slowly. "That's good." Suddenly his eyes lit up hopefully, "Can you do something about Reborn?"

Nalea leveled a deadpan stare in his direction, releasing a dark threatening aura but carefully not unleashing even the slightest hint of killing intent since Reborn was in the room. "You little bitch," Nalea uttered darkly. (Reborn smirked off to the side. Nalea may be considered a hostile until proven otherwise, but she was a fair bit entertaining even so.) "I just said that you and your _entire family_ is in danger, and you want me to _interfere_ in your training? Your training, provided by _Reborn_ , which hundreds of people would throw themselves on their own blades _and_ shoot themselves in the leg to receive? You think I'm here to make things easier for you, to make the darkness go away? You think I'm some kind of personal guardian angel?" Tsuna was backing away now but his calves ran into his bed and he fell on his butt. Nalea still hadn't so much as sat up, much less move towards him but something was telling him that he _really_ didn't want to piss her off more than he already had. "Sawabaka, there are two things in this world that I truly hate: those who pick on the weak, and those who know they are too weak and do nothing to change it. You are a failure and at this rate you will _always_ be a failure. This entire assignment is a waste of my valuable time and energy because with an attitude like yours you won't last a year without the protection of people like Reborn or me. Personally, I'd rather be in Italy than this backwater hellhole, but who says we always get what we want? You think for one second that if you get in trouble that I'm going to bail you out? You're wrong. I'll do my job and keep the assassins away as expected of me, no more, no less. Don't be so complacent."

Nalea pushed herself off the wall and Tsuna flinched back away from her, afraid of what she'd do. Rather than attack him, she simply turned to his open window and put a foot on the ledge. "Oh, and I suppose I'll protect your mother too," she added with false levity over her shoulder, almost as an afterthought. "You know, since you asked. Selfish coward." Nalea leapt out the window, executing an unnecessary display of gymnastics as she flipped out over the wall of the yard and landed gracefully on the sidewalk before sticking her hand in her pockets and walking away, back stiff with carefully restrained anger.

Tsuna scrambled to look after her but by the time he got there she was already out of earshot of anything but one of his louder 'hie' screams. "Eh? Reborn, what was that about?" he asked.

"Dame-Tsuna, you can't even make a good first impression on such a generous and merciful Hitman as the _Vittime Vendetta_ ," he observed, irritated with his student's performance. Virtuoso had given Tsuna the opportunity to impress her based not off of his past successes (of which there were none anyway as she damn well knew) but with his resolve to protect his family. Reborn knew full well that Dame-Tsuna only failed because he didn't _realize_ that his mother was a potential target for the assassins and not just himself, but Virtuoso lacked the context needed to understanding that. As such, Dame-Tsuna had failed her test spectacularly. "You really are no good."

"Vitty-may…?" Tsuna repeated, trying to wrap his tongue around the foreign sounding words and failing horribly.

" _Vittime Vendetta_. Victims Revenge," Reborn translated from Italian to Japanese before explaining, "They call her that because she is the kindest Hitman out there, albeit terribly bloodthirsty. She only goes after the worst scum of Mafia Society, avenging the wronged and saving whoever she can. It really is a waste having her here, she was doing so much good over in Italy, especially for a rookie."

"Then, wait- I thought you brought her here?" Tsuna demanded.

"Dame-Tsuna." There was a kick to the face. " _I_ didn't bring her here. She was sent as extra protection. She isn't really needed."

"Then why _is_ she here?"

"Because her employer is an idiot," Reborn deadpanned. He didn't want to deal with Dame-Tsuna's daddy issues until later. Preferably until after Dame-Tsuna started trusting him properly instead of just seeing him as an eccentric figure pointing a gun everywhere and making his life harder. Besides, Iemitsu's family currently thought he'd 'gone and become a star' or some such complete idiocy. Any further questions Dame-Tsuna tried to ask were met with kicks to the face, and homework began without much further preamble.

* * *

The blonde took one look at the uniform skirt and shook her head in disgust. Nope. No way. That thing was _short_ and worse, it was _girly_ in a way she would _not tolerate_ on her body. How could she possibly kick someone in the face without flashing them wearing something like that?!

Virtuoso Nalea was not an idiot. She was, in point of fact, very smart when given half the chance to show it. Education was not an easy thing to achieve outside of an actual school system, but that did not stop Nalea from working towards it. She was resourceful, intuitive and street smart naturally. What book smarts she had cobbled together from stolen textbooks and extended library visits because she knew she would need them eventually. The closest 'legal equivalent' of what Nalea wanted to achieve was a combination of a lawyer and a historian, so when confronted with the issue of the absolutely _unacceptable_ uniform, she did what any half decent lawyer would do: she went searching for a loophole.

The Namimori Middle School Handbook was a matter of public record and as such, was available online for perusal or download in pdf format. Nalea printed it out, got herself a red pen and a highlighter and set out to find _exactly_ what she could and could not get away with at school. Previously, Nalea had made similar negotiations against Iemitsu-teme but that was different. Against Iemitsu-teme she had been negotiating her freedom (what little he allowed her - bastard), now she was mostly just negotiation her level of rebellion. And there would be _some_ level of rebellion. It was an inevitable part of her personality, her very being.

It didn't take her long to establish that it was a very strange handbook. 'No crowding' and 'herbivores will be bitten to death' were common phrases. There was also nothing overly specific in the rules or phrasing. Sweeping generalizations were made rather than details nit-picked. 'No alcohol or drugs on campus, no exceptions' and 'violent herbivores will be bitten to death' basically summed up what would usually be several rules and sub-procedures of response to broken rules and honor violations, etc. Honestly, biting people to death sounded so much more efficient than holding several varieties of trial or student councils in response to honor code violations and disciplinary infractions that Nalea found herself wondering why all schools didn't simply implement such an effective system.

The answer became clear as soon as she stepped foot on campus that weekend, the day before she was due to start on Monday. Not all schools had Classic Cloud Prefects.

"Trespassers will be bitten to death," was the first sentence she heard out of his mouth.

"I'm not here to trespass or disrespect your territory, I'm here to file the correct paperwork for my enrollment and medical history," Nalea informed him.

He was taller than her, clearly physically inclined and obviously hostile. He was also a very strong Classic Cloud on home territory and it would be smart not to piss him off. There was a pleased tilt to his eyes at her response. Clearly, the idiots in this area had not learned how to deal with a Cloud by allotting him the proper respect and caution. What fools. It wasn't like they hadn't been given time to adjust. Since Namimori was clearly this Cloud's territory, he'd obviously been born and raised here to form such a strong attachment. Everyone should have had plenty of time to adjust to his presence and expectations.

"I know better than to cause trouble," she informed him. "I'm a soon-to-be transfer from Italy." She did not inform him that her previous 'school records' were forgeries, but what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him and in all probability, he wouldn't really care even if he did know. As long as she didn't stir up trouble on his territory and didn't present herself as a threat to his authority, there wouldn't be an issue between them. It would not matter who she was or who she pretended to be unless she caused problems.

"Hn," he acknowledged.

"I'll be quick," Nalea agreed, almost giving her usual professional nod before correcting herself and giving that awkward-feeling Japanese bow the people here considered to be good manners. She did not like presenting her neck like that and it showed.

There as a spark of approval in the boy's eyes. He did not bow back, clearly considering her not worth the 'risk' or effort. She didn't blame him. This was his territory after all and well mannered or not, she was an unknown. Clouds were odd like that. Nalea was observant enough to know that. Clouds tended to be like predatory animals with their instincts, the same as it was a given that Mists just liked to fuck with people and Lightnings were easily excitable. Nalea knew well enough to wait for either dismissal or instruction.

"Hn," the boy - he still hadn't given a name and she still hadn't asked - turned and started walking. Obediently, Nalea followed him to the administrative offices to file the correct papers.

The secretary trembled at the boy's approach and _eep_ ed something that was probably meant to be the boy's name but was quite utterly unintelligible. After the second stuttering attempt at speaking the secretary made and increasing irritation by the two Flame users present (though one was so unrefined that she doubted he was even fully aware of his Active Flames since the certainly weren't Useful - yet), Nalea ended up gently moving the woman and her swivel chair to the side and doing the task herself, irritated. Honestly, the boy wasn't _that_ scary. Showing fear and acting like a gibbering incompetent probably just pissed him off more. Stupid woman.

* * *

Hibari had not anticipated this. And for once, this unanticipated thing did not piss him off. What he did not anticipate, was someone who seemed to instinctively know how to react to him. He had not in living memory known of anyone who could handle his instructions and attitude without crumbling into a terrified puddle or fighting his dominance. This… _omnivore_ … (Had he really met an omnivore? Some part of him quivered in excitement at the thought.) was not the same as the others. She did not fear him, nor did she make the obvious mistake of assuming she was stronger than him as so many did. She was… adequately intelligent. He would have to keep an eye on her.

Hibari escorted the newly-enrolled student (part of his flock now, his responsibility) to the gates and they both stopped. It was time to debrief.

"Thank you. I have an unfortunate eye condition that requires me to wear these goggles at all times to protect my pupils from the light, though I know they are against dress code," the Omnivore informed him.

"Hn," he acknowledged. That was frustrating, but it was not an act of dissent and therefore not a cause for him to act.

"Also," she added, delaying him further, "nowhere in the School Handbook does it state that girls must wear the girl uniform, merely that all students must be in uniform at all times."

Hibari narrowed his eyes. She was testing his boundaries. Part of him wanted to crush her immediately rather than let her potentially develop into a threat but the larger part of him respected her for testing him rather than outright challenging him. Her peculiar brand of blatant subtlety was amusing. The Italian transfer obviously knew what she wanted, what he wanted and how to negotiate the two concisely without blithely stating everything out loud, wasting his time and talking too much like an annoying herbivore. It was refreshing. "Hn."

"Thank you." She gave another reluctant bow with the appropriate caution, not breaking eye contact. It was easy to hit someone and knock them out when they exposed the back of their necks like that in such an obvious act of submission. Somehow when she did it, bowing became about respect and acknowledgement instead of deference. It was not something he often noticed, probably because it was not something he often saw performed correctly. "Goodbye," she said in parting before leaving.

Neither of them had exchanged names. They weren't overly necessary. Yet.

Hibari watched her go, listening to the slight clicking of her spiked leather boots against the concrete of the sidewalk. Her fighting style included lots of kicking then. Camouflage cargo pants would suggest military but she was too young. Excessively long blonde hair also dissuaded that possibility. The leather jacket was expensive, so money or thievery. (It had better be money. Theft was not permitted in Namimori.) White shirt without decorations - not part of the colorful gaggle of females that assembled on the weekends then. The goggles were interesting. Hibari's eyes had slid over them easily and automatically, making them less noticeable than a pair of wire-frame glasses, despite completely concealing her eyes and being impenetrably dark. To his knowledge there was no eye condition which required such a restriction of light to the eye, but that was not a field he had ever paid attention to before. Weaknesses were not something he studied excessively.

He couldn't tell how strong she was. But he would find out. This was his territory after all. He had time.

(They would meet again.)


	3. The Introduction of New Hitmen

**Chapter 2: The Introduction of New Hitmen**

* * *

 ***BOOM***

"What kind of tutor blows students up for giving a wrong answer?" Tsuna complained.

"What kind of student questions a teacher's methods?" Nalea snarked right back at him, not looking up from her book. The text on the cover was written in a Cyrillic language Tsuna couldn't positively identify and looked insanely thick.

"This is just how I roll," Reborn explained, a malicious glint in his eyes. Nalea hid the amused pull at her lips behind her book and Tsuna complained some more.

Actually, Nalea had yet to see Sawabaka do anything but complain, protest, wine, grouse or generally make a nuisance of himself while Reborn tried to teach him. The brat was incredibly ungrateful. He knew he was weak and what did he do? Nothing! Reborn seemed to understand where her anger was coming from, or at least he didn't say anything on the subject and let her stew in peace.

Still… there were lots of idiots here trying to kill the Tenth Vongola candidate. There shouldn't be _nearly_ this many but Sawada-teme was a fool and couldn't keep his mouth shut even in front of the obviously dangerous sort of listeners. There were four assassins yesterday. Four of them. In one day! Nalea hadn't let them anywhere near the house, obviously, and had handled the bodies without evidence but that was still a lot more assassins in one day than should have been possible. It was an absolute fucking _miracle_ that Sawabaka was still alive. _Someone_ must have been protecting him before this and it obviously wasn't himself or the CEDEF idiots Iemitsu-teme usually employed for everything because both were almost equally incompetent. Nalea had her suspicions. Even before Sawabaka became the official heir, he still would have been a soft target. People would do anything in the Mafia to hurt their enemies. In any case, the Young Lion of the Vongola had lots to answer for, risking his wife and son like that was completely unacceptable. If possible, Nalea hated the man even more. It actually _wasn't_ possible for her to hate him more than she already did, but she tried anyway on principle.

 _Oh look, there was a sweet little kid in that tree over there. And he's got a rocket launcher. Aw, it's too big for him. How adorable_. Nalea smiled softly into her book. She loved little kids. That little cow-print onesie was so freaking cute. And he was obviously trying to assassinate Reborn, not Sawabaka, so it didn't really matter. Reborn could take care of himself easily.

 ***CRACK***

 _Ooh, the branch broke._ Nalea noticed. _That looked like it could have hurt – at least he'll know better now_. Nana let the kid in and he raced up the stairs to introduce himself. Bovino Lambo? Nalea had never heard of him. He was _way_ beneath her level. He was a _baby_ Baby Hitman. That didn't stop him from being cute though. _Even his grenades were pink! Aww… Well, he went out the window_. She hoped he landed safely. _He may be a Baby Hitman, but he was still just a little fella. No need for him to get hurt for such a careless reason._

"Don't you think that was kinda mean?" Tsuna asked, distressed.

"It's not like he's dead after just that, Sawabaka," Nalea dismissed. "Probably not even injured. He would have landed on his afro." And seriously, how and Sawabaka not realized that the _grenade-carrying hitman_ had gotten in past his mother and that he maybe ought to go check on her? Just because he was a little kid didn't mean he hadn't hurt anyone. Of course, neither Reborn nor Nalea would allow such a thing, but Tsuna had no way of knowing that.

"I don't associate with those beneath my level," Reborn informed Dame-Tsuna.

Nalea chuckled to herself dryly. At Reborn's inquiring glance she explained, "That doesn't leave you with a whole lot of people to associate with, Hitman Reborn, Strongest of the Arcobaleno."

* * *

Nalea watched from her hidden perch Tsuna clumsily dropped the drink that Bianchi had given him. It was probably a good thing. "How lame," he complained.

"How lucky," Nalea corrected, dropping out of the tree. "That drink was poisoned."

"HIIIEEE?!" Tsuna screamed. "Poison?! And what were you doing in that tree?"

"Yes, I just said it was poisoned. Don't repeat things, it makes you sound stupid," Nalea ordered.

"Stupid?" Tsuna asked, looking confused.

"...Never you mind, it's clearly a lost cause," Nalea dismissed, sighing before she continued. "And I was escorting you to school, obviously. I'm your bodyguard after all."

"But, Virtuoso-san, who was that and why is she trying to kill me?" He asked, confused and afraid. "And why didn't you _stop_ her?!"

Nalea snorted. "Call me Nalea, not Virtuoso. You Japanese people pronounce it so strangely. Nalea is mostly vowels anyway so your Japanese accent doesn't mangle it _too_ badly, just stick with that. At least there isn't a whole extra syllable, you're just switching the 'L' for an 'R'. As for the assassin… well, you're still alive aren't you?" she demanded. "That's my job done. Unless you want me to hunt her down and kill her, but then I'll charge extra."

"N-no, you don't have to kill her, Vir- uh, Nalea-san," Tsuna protested. This mafia business and killing… did the being in the mafia really mean killing? What about Hayato? Had he killed anyone?

Nalea smacked him on the head. "Stop thinking about stupid things," she ordered, "Now sprint or you'll make us both late for school, and on my first day and everything."

"HIE!"

Nalea sighed. "If I had known _she_ would be here, I would have charged more. Bianchi the Poison Scorpion. I don't want to deal with that crazy bitch. Oh well, Reborn _has_ been wanting to know what's so special about me anyways. I guess he'll end up seeing a trick or two soon. Unless… maybe I can avoid her?" Nalea shrugged. It was worth a shot.

Bianchi was a pain, but she wasn't any sort of genuine threat. She was from a Family allied with the Vongola. The likelihood of her _actually_ trying to _kill_ Sawabaka was about equal to a butterfly's chance in hell. Sure, Bianchi might poison the idiot boy - that much was basically a certitude actually, just about everybody got poisoned if they hung around her long enough - but it wouldn't be lethal and therefore was technically not Nalea's problem. She would probably get dragged into the chaos anyway though. As much as Nalea would _prefer_ not to deal with the woman, it didn't really matter one way or another. Reborn had probably called her to come test his student or something.

Bianchi was crazy and obsessive, yes, but not stupid. She wouldn't go against the Vongola, especially not when the inheritance in her own family was already in question. What with her younger brother's bastard nature and later disappearance, she was the only direct inheritor of the Family. But the likelihood of them accepting a female boss was very low - Daniella Octavia of the Vongola had been an exception, not the rule - so Bianchi had to marry high and more importantly _neutral_. Not easy to do. All of Bianchi's actions would reflect on how her family was perceived and ultimately indicate how much longer it existed. She simply couldn't afford to go against the Vongola in any way, much less by assassinating the final heir.

* * *

"Class, this is our, uh, _second_ new transfer student from Italy, Virtuoso Nalea," the teacher announced. He did not pronounce her surname correctly. Instead it came out something like 'Vi-ru-tu-ozo Na-reh-aa'. Nalea very carefully did not wince. Maybe she should have chosen a pseudonym for while she was in this country? Something easier for the Japanese to pronounce…

The breakout of whispers was immediate. "Wow, she's so pretty!" "Why is she wearing the boys' uniform instead of the girls'? Do you think she'll get in trouble?" "Look at her beautiful blonde hair! It's so long and exotic!" "What's with the goggles indoors? Is it a fashion statement?" "Maybe it's a trend in Italy!"

"Hello, my name is Virtuoso Nalea," she greeted, giving the proper bow. "Please call me Nalea. I like history, good food and exercise. I hate bullies and weaklings. I'm sure we can all coexist quietly if you just give me the space to adjust peacefully to this new country. Please take care of me."

Nalea's short speech was met by a second round of chattering. "How polite!" "I think she seems kind of mysterious, don't you?" "She's so pretty! Do you think she'd say yes if I asked her out?" "I get the impression she doesn't want to talk to anyone. She's so cool and aloof!" Silently, Tsuna wondered if this was what she was really like when she wasn't threatening people, or if it was all an act.

When the teacher went to direct the blonde to her seat she cut him off completely but politely. "I'll take the window seat in the back row, please?" Nalea gave a small head tilt. Somehow, she managed to use the puppy-dog eyes without removing her goggles and Tsuna could swear he saw sparkles and flowers in the background. The teacher yielded easily. Tsuna was stunned. How did that scary girl charm the teacher so easily?! Maybe she wasn't so dangerous after all…

As if sensing the mental disrespect, Nalea's eyes zeroed in on Tsuna and she _glared_. Again, how that was done with goggles on that obscured half her face, Tsuna wasn't sure. That glare though… it was terrifying.

Lunch period arrived quickly. Nalea sighed in relief. Classes were _so boring_. Honestly, she was smarter than the teacher, so what was the point? Ah, yes. Sawa-baka Tsunayoshi. The boy trying to get his subordinate to call him by his first name.

"No, Juudaime is Juudaime," Hayato disagreed.

"Don't fight him on this, Sawabaka," Nalea interjected in hopes of shutting them both up, "it's a disrespect to his commitment towards you if you refuse to allow him to call you by your proper title. Besides, you should get used to being referred to by your station sooner or later."

"Eh? Who are you?" The Smoking Bomb glared at her darkly out of suspicion. "How do you know Juudaime?!"

" _I am Nalea Virtuoso, also known as the Victim's Vendetta. I'm here to keep your boss safe. I have no intention of joining your Famiglia or usurping your position as his right hand man, Hayato Gokudera,"_ Nalea greeted in Italian. There, all bases covered. And just to be polite she added, " _I look forward to working with you in the future._ "

Stars appeared in Hayato's eyes, thankfully not aimed at her. "Juudaime, I didn't know you'd attracted the attention of the great Virtuoso! This is why Juudaime is Juudaime!"

"Still playing the Mafia game?" Yamamoto asked. "Let me join the family!"

Nalea's eyes zeroed in on him instantly. The baseball star looked back, gaze focused for a single heartbeat before his face morphed into a congenial smile.

He looked like a fool. And yet… there had been that split second when he looked at her… those eyes did not belong to a civilian. No, he had potential to be a great Hitman. Yamamoto Takeshi obviously lacked any sort of training and yet he was already to the point of subconsciously assessing threats. He could go so far with the right guidance. Yamamoto was obviously drawn to Sawabaka's Sky Flame. That predatory instinct could so easily stretch and expand to become protective and then it was no large leap to evolve into killer instinct. Reborn would want his eye on this one. Though, as things stand Yamamoto might be wasted on Sawabaka.

* * *

Nalea elected to eat her own damn rice balls for Home Economics. And how sexist of a class was that to start with? There were only girls there learning how to cook. It was unfair and Nalea was indignant. She knew better than to call attention to herself by complaining about misogynistic classes. It was an integral part of the system and she was a part of it now. This did not stop her from mentally cussing at the shallow girls who wanted to give the fruits of their labor to the boys just to earn attention from their crushes. It just felt so pointless. Nalea did not go.

As such, Nalea missed all the excitement of Hayato passing out at the sight of Bianchi's face and future Lambo getting poisoned. She did however write a note about what he'd been poisoned with and pinned it to his rather silly cow-print shirt so that the future could treat him for with the correct antidotes and lugged Hayato to the Nurse's Office, listening all the while to Reborn as he told her how Tsuna had 'saved his family' by eating the super-dangerous poisoned rice balls.

Nalea huffed, half in complaint from Hayato's weight on her shoulders and half from exasperation. "I'm not saying he'll _never_ be a good Boss, Reborn. If that were the case, _you_ wouldn't be here. All I'm saying is that he's a shitty Boss right _now_."

"He is making progress," Reborn argued.

"Is he really?" Nalea deadpanned. "Show me someone worth looking at, Reborn. Because I don't see it." She shrugged. "The kid has no spine to stand up for himself. He had no willpower. We both know that you can make his body as strong as you have to and his mind as smart as he needs, but in the end it's up to _him_ to find his own willpower. Sure he was _born_ with especially pure Sky Flames, but he had to _want_ to use them to get anywhere without taking a very specific bullet to the head. And that brat? He doesn't want much of anything."

"He wants a family," Reborn corrected her. "More than anything, he wants a family."

Nalea paused. "So what's he going to _do_ about it?" she asked, "Because right now all he does is what you tell him to, and even that with great reluctance. I'll believe it when I see it. Not before."

* * *

When Nana Sawada greeted her son and his bodyguard by saying that, "Your new tutor is waiting for you on the second floor," Nalea got a bad feeling. When they got to the top of the stairs, that feeling was proven accurate.

"Oh _fuck!_ " Nalea shouted, dodging a poisoned pie of some sort while leaping over backwards, simultaneously shoving Tsuna out of firing range behind the door and therefore out of mind. "Reborn, what is she doing _here?!_ I thought she was _done_ testing Sawabaka!"

"Oh? You know each other?" Reborn asked mildly, sipping his espresso. There was very little on heaven, hell or in between which would make him lose interest in his espresso. Bianchi throwing poison cooking at people was not something he considered of greater emotional investment than his espresso, and he therefore largely ignored it.

""Yes!"" both women shouted simultaneously. "The bitch keeps trying to kill me!"/"The bitch won't die!" Nalea and Bianchi complained at the same time. "Why haven't you left yet?! I thought I'd avoided you!" Nalea demanded, still poised to dodge the platter Bianchi had pulled out of nowhere.

"I'm not here for you!" Bianchi snapped harshlyu before adopting a dopey, dreamy expression. "I'm here for Reborn, out of love!"

The wild variation between emotions was enough to give a normal person whiplash; thankfully though Nalea had grown up in the Mafia and was therefore very much so _not_ normal. "Not this shit again," Nalea deadpanned, exasperated. "You've got a problem, lady. There's an age gap here, like, a big one. Either way you look at it… you've got a problem. There _is_ pedophilia going on here. One way or another. I'm not sure which way it goes, but it's _there_."

"You're just jealous because you don't understand our love!" Bianchi shrieked, chucking the platter of what was probably some kind of finger sandwiches and crackers at the smaller girl.

Tsuna could only gape as Nalea adeptly caught the platter with one hand, not spilling anything, and used the other to start eating one of the purple finger sandwiches. Her face showed no reaction to the poison she was ingesting with utter nonchalance and she didn't fall over clutching her stomach.

"You're wrong, or at least not entirely right," Nalea denied. "I am not jealous. But I sure as hell don't understand."

(Internally, Nalea sighed in resignation. Bianchi would obviously be staying around for awhile, potentially the rest of Tsuna's training. It would be a pain in the ass to deal attempted poisonings for so long, even if they wouldn't work. It would be best to get along. Since Nalea's usual calm personality wasn't working, it was better to deploy the tragic backstory. Something about love, obviously… and something that wasn't a complete lie. Any self-respecting Hitman - or Hitwoman, never let it be say that Nalea was sexist against her own gender! - could detect a lie. They always knew.)

"The truth is, I don't understand love at all," Nalea explained, not bothering to move her voice more than a few octaves away from deadpan to convey her mostly faked emotions, "My problem stems from a lack of affection at childhood which left me emotionally stunted. I have difficulty understanding relationships that are not based off of power or control. Trust for another person is a foreign concept for me, and even my respect is difficult to earn. I am uncertain if I am capable or even willing to love anyone at all. Killing helps me establish a controlled environment around myself, which is why I am instinctively hostile in nature under the calm façade, resulting in passive-aggression. I put up a front of even-tempered dislike as a test for others and few ever pass. Your persistent attempts to poison me actually serves as a form of comfort due to the consistency of reaction I get without putting myself at any genuine risk. However, I don't have time anymore to get poison cakes shoved in my face constantly as it would interfere with my job. Do I have to kill you to get you to stop?"

Reborn frowned and shadowed his eyes with his fedora. Nalea had been completely honest, even if she was faking what little emotion she had put into her words. She had a Hitman's sense of self alright, perfectly aware of her strengths and failings, making her difficult to manipulate. But what she had said… it irritated him _again_ that Iemitsu was unwilling to release the information he had on her background. He hated dealing with psychopaths; even ones with honor like Nalea appeared to be had a habit of going crazy at all the wrong times. Even more than that though, Reborn hated working with unknowns. The only thing he had to assure himself that she wasn't a threat to his student was that Nalea wouldn't go back on her contract (without prompting… probably). The fact that she had defeated Bianchi with words instead of actions sparked his interest as well. Reborn knew a useful skill when he saw one. He still couldn't eliminate Nalea as a potential Guardian, despite the fact that he didn't trust her. Reborn wasn't the most Flame-Sensitive person he knew and he could _still_ sense her Flame crackling away under her skin, no matter how carefully she controlled herself. She was active and useful and damn powerful and disciplined for someone so young. Assuming Iemitsu hadn't messed up any potential Guardian Bond too badly, she could be a great asset if handled properly. It would take patience though. Ah well, one did not become the Greatest Hitman in the World by being impatient. Reborn would wait.

Bianchi, on the other hand, was stunned. This was a girl… who _lived_ _without_ _**LOVE!**_ That was unacceptable! She would shower this young flower with love and fix her childhood! It was never too late! If Nalea could just see the love she shared with Reborn, she could understand! "Dear child, welcome to my family!" Bianchi shouted.

"What the fuck?!" Nalea dodged the first hug but things went downhill from there. "No! No, never! You misunderstand! I'm here asking for a professional business courtesy! I don't want to be part of your family or your Family! Get back, woman! I don't want your welcome cake!"

Reborn smirked as he watched Bianchi chase 'their' new 'daughter' around the room. _This_ would be _funny_.

Tsuna did _not_ think this would be funny. He thought this would be _horrible_. That was actually the only thought he managed to get out through his daze. Tsuna wasn't quite sure if this was the usual 'Reborn's done something crazy again, how is this my life?' daze or if he'd hit his head when Nalea-san pushed him out of the way of that first flying poisoned pie but he was certainly dazed. Bianchi-san was chasing Nalea-san around the room shouting about love and being shouted at about work and legal obligations.

This was how he was formally introduced to his Home Tutor for Home Economics and Art. Things didn't improve from there.

* * *

"Hayato, your sister… is a psycho," Nalea stated in place of a greeting.

"Tell me something I don't know," he shrugged. Whatever she had done now, he _didn't_ want to know.

"She decided to adopt me," Nalea informed him. "You're now my uncle." Hayato choked either on air or on his own spit, he wasn't sure. That was _not_ what he wanted to hear this morning. "Naturally, I need to take this frustration out on someone. You understand right? It's nothing personal."

Hayato paled. Nalea, and girls in general, could be _evil_ sometimes. Nalea in particularly… her reputation precedes her. Nalea had broken people's limbs like twigs for touching her inappropriately. She had ripped out people's eyeballs for looking at her wrong. She had a penchant for taking only the barely recognizable heads of her victims back for their bounties, and the cut was never clean. Some people claimed that she had _ripped their skulls off with her bare hands while her victims were still alive_. There were at least five contracts out on her head at any given time and the few assassins that had the balls to try for it always got returned to their employers in boxes… multiple boxes per assassin. And now she was mad at _him_.

"Have a nice day at school tomorrow," Nalea said, walking away.

Gokudera Hayato the Smoking Bomb was scared. Very scared.

(He had every right to be.)

* * *

The next day he found that a picture of his sister smiling innocently and holding a plate of cookies had been added to all the baking club posters. And somehow his 'fangirl club' had been worked into a frenzy like sharks scenting blood in the water. Apparently someone had delivered _fanart_ of him in _several_ states of undress and different poses to all of their mailboxes that morning. With extra copies. And they were distributing them. On the walls. Hayato also got bitten to death for causing this disturbance. Apparently that psycho Hibari didn't like the squealing noises the fangirls were making any more than Hayato did.

Hayato had been right: Virtuoso Nalea was one scary chick.


	4. The Wolf Omnivore

**Chapter 3: The Wolf Omnivore**

* * *

"Hello, I'm Miura Haru." (Nalea did not yet know that she would grow to regret this potentially inevitable encounter. )

"I know," Reborn assured her from Nalea's shoulder. Her stride was much more even than his student's and provided for a steadier ride and by extension, less interference to compensate for if he had to shoot anyone while in-transit. The difference was negligible but present. Thinking like that was why he was the Greatest Hitman in the World and not just another dead one.

"Yep, she's a stalker," Nalea agreed quietly, deciding to be kind enough to warn Sawabaka. "I think it's some sort of pedophilia thing. I checked her out along with everyone else in this piss-poor excuse of a civilization. She's civilian and basically harmless, but she's a weirdo."

Haru didn't hear. She was way too busy becoming 'friends' of all things with Reborn and then asking for a hug. As in, permission to violate his personal space and restrain him with her limbs at the same time. From a Hitman. A Hitman who was obviously aware of her pedophilia thing and didn't allow many people in his personal space anyway. (Nalea deliberately did not think about Bianchi. She didn't want to know anything about _anything_ in that relationship.)

"Don't touch me so casually," Reborn ordered, "You see, I'm a Hitman."

"Hey Reborn," Sawabaka protested, "you shouldn't say that!"

Nalea was protesting for a different reason. "Really?! Her?!" she complained. "I know he needs a bigger family and some of 'em ought to be the middle school equivalent of a piece of tail but seriously?! What the hell? I just don't see it in her." Reborn had just included her under the Omerta. She would join the Mafia or she would die. It didn't matter if she didn't believe what he said to be true. It was. The girl's life had just been changed and she didn't even know it.

 ***SLAP!***

Nalea observed the hand shaped mark on Sawabaka's face. "Never mind," she decided. "I might grow to like her. She's slightly tolerable." Anyone who hit Sawabaka couldn't be all that bad.

"You're horrible!" Haru exclaimed, thoroughly scolding Sawabaka. "What are you teaching this precious baby? Babies are angels with totally pure hearts!" …Okay, so she might be pretty bad. That was just another form of stereotyping after all.

"Hey, Reborn, you wouldn't happen to have given her some sort of psych eval, would you?" Nalea asked hopefully. "She seems like she might be a little… off. Are you sure you want him dealing with that full time?"

"She checks out," he assured her. "It's just the baby thing and a mentality that makes her susceptible to fixation or addiction."

"Huh…" Nalea shrugged. He was the 'baby' so if he was willing to deal with it then whatever. It was his problem. "Okay. If you say so."

Lambo swung in on a wire, trying to explode Reborn, but when he used both hands to grab his grenades he let go of the wire and fell. Nalea caught him deftly, making sure he didn't hurt himself. "Hey there little guy," she soothed him, "don't cry. I'll teach you how to do that properly after school, okay? Throwing grenades is all in the wrist." She looked up and frowned. "Oh? Sawabaka ran off. I guess he was chased away by a lone civilian middle school girl. How pathetic," she turned to Lambo. Young, impressionable Lambo. "Don't use him as a role-model, okay? You want to grow up big and strong."

Unfortunately, Haru overheard that last bit. Nalea cured in Italian under her breath and made Lambo giggle. "Hahi! Someone who is on my side in this battle! You can help me defend..." Nalea blocked her out for the rest of her declaration.

Rather than make Lambo suffer, she gave him some of the candy she bought yesterday and told him in Italian to run along home to Nana so he didn't have to hang around the creepy lady. Haru was still ranting, up until she left off, sounding for the entire world as though she had asked a question which Nalea hadn't bothered listening to.

Nalea paused. _Eh, why the hell not?_ "Totally. I like kids," she agreed honestly enough. (And that was the sentence which Nalea would come to regret. It spelled the beginning of the end.)

* * *

Sawabaka and Yamamoto earned themselves special homework or whatever since they sucked at math. Hayato and Nalea both got one hundreds. It was only middle school math, which Nalea found herself insulted by. Granted, she was a middle schooler but that was only because Sawada-teme had forced her to enroll so she would be closer to his 'darling Tsuna-fish' blah blah blah… Nalea was highly resentful of a lot of thing she had to go through because of Iemitsu's spoiling and poorly timed overprotectiveness for his son, but middle school was one of the worst of them. Especially math. Just ew. Not to mention the _kids_.

Nalea hated being surrounded by her age-mates. It made her feel… old. Everyone at the school was so naive and petty, even the teachers. She could hardly stand it. Even Hayato, for all that he had been exposed to the Mafia, had done his best to remain ignorant of the worst aspects of it. He had succeeded in only _knowing_ of the dark side, not seeing it and he certainly hadn't been a _part_ of it. Not like she had. The boy could still go through life with his blinders on at least in part, if he so chose. Hayato's choice was obvious, even if it was probably made unconsciously. Nalea frowned. She certainly never had that choice.

And now she had no choice about being stuck in Tsuna's (incredibly messy and smelling terribly of teenage boy) room. Reborn had tricked Nalea into agreeing to stay until Sawabaka finished his homework. She had instantly regretted it, realizing her mistake. The troll just smirked at her. (Dammit, how did someone even smirk evilly with a pudgy baby face?! It should be impossible!) Nalea was also kicking herself for falling for Reborn's tricks. She did not want to be tricked into _anything_ ; thus the lawyer aspect of her studying and emphasis on Mafia Law in her education.

"Can I at least have a copy of the homework for fun?" Nalea asked.

"Here," Reborn held it out to her.

Nalea sighed in disappointment. She was hoping it would be hard. Sadly, inventiveness was a rare commodity in this world so it probably was for most people. Even Yamamoto seemed to understand the work just fine now that he had actually read the textbook.

Nalea frowned at him and scolded, "You need to manage your time better. Baseball is important to you, and that's fine. But it's still a physically taxing exercise. If you don't take a break at some point, all that exercise will become unhealthy and you'll overstress your body. You could end up hurting yourself. Take the time to do your homework or you could end up booted off the team for bad grades anyway. Think ahead, Yamamoto."

He laughed her off. Nalea decided not to bother talking if he wasn't going to listen. That didn't stop her from insulting him in German under her breath as she pulled out a book to distract herself from all the idiocy in the room. The idiocy levels in the room only got higher when Haru came in, although she brought snacks so Nalea graciously forgave her for it. Nana's cookies were good. Even outside of her promise to Reborn she might have chosen to stay just for those cookies.

Speaking of, Nalea suspected she figured out why Reborn made her stay. It was so he wouldn't be the only one to suffer in boredom alone. And it was obvious that Reborn was bored. He was idly cleaning his Leon-Gun – that spoiled little angel. Nalea had to admit that the lizard was a cutie. Anyone would want to spoil him. Nalea considered pulling out her playing cards and going for a game of solitaire to ease her boredom but restrained herself. That could be distracting and rude when other people were trying to do 'complicated' math problems. Any distractions would only make the homework (and by homework, she meant boredom) last longer. Reborn was very bored. He actually went so far as to play peekaboo with Leon. It was sad what these people reduce could reduce a self-respecting Mafioso to.

Haru got the bright idea of asking an adult and then made the mistake of assuming Bianchi would act like one. As Nalea's 'adoptive mother' (yes, Bianchi was still insisting on that and no, Nalea had not succeeded in making her stop - Reborn still thought it was funny) came up the stairs, she felt a bout of sympathy for Hayato and shoved her goggles onto his face, letting him secure the strap himself. Nalea pulled back, keeping her eyes closed as she did, retaining her hold on her book though she could no longer read it.

"Hahi? Why are you keeping your eyes closed?" Haru asked.

 _Well she's certainly a rude little bugger, ain't she?_ Nalea thought to herself. "I have unique eyes," Nalea explained, not really giving her the whole story. "I need to use special lenses to compensate for that most of the time."

"But then why did you give them away?" Haru insisted. "Couldn't you hurt yourself?"

"Haru, it's rude to inquire about a person's personal medical history," Nalea scolded gently. "Please don't ask." Haru's good side might not be worth maintaining at this rate. Then again… Nalea's patience was already wearing thin. The girl might not be as bad normally when she wasn't irritated with the world at large and barely restraining violence.

"Eh? Why aren't I…" Hayato realized, staring at his sister's face and not collapsing into agony.

"My goggles are special," Nalea explained. "Don't worry about it, just be prepared to give them back later when I need them since I only have the one pair. Ooh, solvent sakura rice cake!" she cheered, snagging one of Bianchi's purple onigiri, which everyone had just seen dissolve Tsuna's door handle and munching on it happily.

"Those can melt through solid metal," Bianchi pointed out. "I added some minor acids internally to make them faster-acting but still safe to hold with my bare hands."

"It's very good," Nalea complimented. "All your food is, actually. Most of the time, plain, straight-up poison is gross, but yours always tastes wonderful. If you could cook without poisoning people, you'd make a wonderful chef. Most of these idiots just can't taste it because they're too busy collapsing in pain."

Bianchi blushed. It had been a long, long time since she had received an honest compliment on her cooking, poison or otherwise. Not since her mother was still alive.

"By the way, it's getting close to midnight and I have to get up in about four hours to begin my morning sweep for assassins," Nalea noted. "Are you sure you guys don't want to ask for my help so we can all leave already?"

"YOU KNEW THAT WHOLE TIME?!" Sawabaka howled in dismay. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US THE ANSWER?!"

Nalea leveled him with a low-grade glare. Even with her eyes closed, her aura was enough to make Tsuna clam up instantly. "I would never simply give you the answer, Sawabaka. I expected you to do more than take one look at the problem, decide it was too hard for you, and then wait for someone else to do it for you. I guess I was wrong. You really can't grow a spine for yourself," Nalea sneered. Every time Sawabaka opened his damn mouth she got more agitated with him. She'd need to take a mental health day soon at this rate or risk going bloodthirsty on a bunch of defenseless middle schoolers.

"Nalea, would you mind helping us?" Yamamoto asked earnestly, one hand rubbing the back of his head casually. "We're pretty stuck."

Ooh, she _liked_ him. He was clearly a good kid. "How about I just give you a physical demonstration?" she offered, pulling a bunch of papers out of nowhere. "There's actually more than one answer, though they're all related. All you have to do is prove that all the papers will descend at the same rate. Hayato, what is the acceleration of gravity?"

"Approximately 9.8 meters per second per second depending on your altitude and atmospheric conditions," he replied immediately, adjusting his reading glasses. "Why?"

"That's only the case if there's no air in the way," Nalea corrected. "Paper is light enough and has enough wind resistance that when it falls, the air pushes it off course and makes it 'float' to the ground instead of dropping at the usual rate of acceleration."

"So… we create an air vacuum and drop the papers inside it?" Hayato guessed.

Nalea rolled her eyes. "You _could_ , but that would be exhausting. You could also just put something heavy in the way to move the air before the paper gets there."

Yamamoto's eyes lit up. "So the papers will stay together if you get the air out of the way?"

"Exactly," Nalea agreed. She took out a sheaf of papers, stacked them on top of her book and dropped the entire thing at the same time. The papers followed on top of the book at exactly the same speed and didn't fall apart. "See?" she showed them. "The other way would be to attach the papers to each other with staples, glue or something like that. Since your homework is done, I'm getting out of here. Bye, losers, Professor Borin." Nalea snatched her goggles off Hayato's face, making him collapse in pain at the sight of Bianchi as she made her escape. "I was trapped with you idiots far too long and missed out on a lot of sleep because of it, so I'll probably be a bitch in the morning! See you then, Sawabaka!"

* * *

"Yesterday really sucked." Sawabaka felt the need to complain. _He_ felt the need to complain.

"Yeah I had to spend it with you," Nalea snarked back immediately.

And to top it all off, Haru's stalking had reached a new level of crazy and creepy. And not in the good way. They didn't even have Reborn with them (visibly, he was hang gliding via Leon just out of sight and spying on them. Nalea felt his appearance on the back of her neck and waves a hand in greeting, receiving no acknowledgement.). She was dressed like some kind of pink hockey samurai. Sorta. Maybe she was supposed to be a Power Ranger? Were those a thing in Japan? … Actually Power Rangers were weird enough that they probably came from Japan.

"Agh! Nalea-san, save me!" Sawabaka begged, realizing they were being followed by… a weird person. No one in the Mafia had so little self-respect to wear anything like that. (Nalea was pretty sure anyway.) Sawabaka obviously hadn't figured that part out.

Nalea was pissed. _A Mafia Boss begging for help? Fuck that!_ So she decided to fuck with him a little. Just a little. "Run!" Nalea screamed, obviously fake terror lining her voice, "That enemy is too great for me! I'm sorry but you're on your own!"

"AAAGGGHHH!"

Nalea laughed out loud as he ran. Damn, his elbows and knees stuck out funny when he ran. Reborn would have to train that out of him if he ever wanted to be a sprinter or develop any sort of proper endurance. Nalea followed them at a discrete distance. She was hardly an expert stalker, or at least, she wasn't on the level of Reborn. Few were. Of course though, she was damn good. She had to be, being a Hitman as her preferred profession. She was more than good enough to follow a pair of middle schoolers who were too caught up in their idiocy to be aware of their surroundings. Nalea listened in on their conversation.

"So you dress like that when you don't get enough sleep?" Sawabaka asked.

"No, that would make me an idiot." Nalea barely restrained herself from laughing so hard the next town over would have heard. And seriously? Haru assumed that because Sawabaka was in the Mafia, he was strong. Normally, this would be an apt assumption because any self-respecting Mafioso could handle a middle school civilian girl blindfolded and with one hand tied behind their back while drugged to the verge of unconsciousness… but instead she was dealing with _Tsuna_ and Sawabaka was a little shit. It was all going fine (terribly) for the two of them when Hayato showed up and got himself involved. Haru hit the water, knocked off the bridge by the force of the explosion.

"Her armor is too heavy and I can't swim! One of you save her!" Tsuna yelled.

This was exactly Nalea's issue with that brat. Instantly, she was boiling over with absolute rage. Nalea leapt from roof she was watching from and interfered. "You weaklings get out of my way! _I'll_ save her!" She shouted mid air as she fell. "This is how a _real_ Mafiosa acts! You boys are useless!"

Honestly, the girl wasn't even all that heavy. Hayato took the opportunity to let the experience serve as a warning to 'Stay away from his precious Juudaime!' whereas Yamamoto warned Haru that 'Girls shouldn't be waving around such dangerous things.' Nalea smacked him and he amended himself appropriately. "Ahahaha, I meant without training!" Nalea nodded in approval. He was amenable to her training, that would serve him well.

Haru started quoting Nalea with a weird glint in her eyes. "'You weaklings! Get out of my way!'"

 _Oh god her eyes._ Nalea realized, suddenly backing away. _Don't tell me…_

Kyoko came out of nowhere and started asking stupid, oblivious questions as per usual. Honestly, Sawabaka should just be glad she's so lightheaded or he'd be in for a world of trouble explaining all the weird stuff that happened around him.

"Yes, an early morning swim," Nalea confirmed, deadpan. There was oblivious and then there was just plain stupid. "Because we were swimming and it's the morning. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Now I'm not so sure…" Haru cheered a little louder. "And I'm getting less sure by the second."

"You were wonderful!" Haru congratulated Nalea. "I've fallen hard for you!"

"No you haven't," Nalea corrected. "You've just developed an obsession with me because you think I saved your life. It's only the adrenaline talking. Relationships forged in life-threatening situations tend not to last long. I'm sure someone else would have saved you as soon as the Bystander Effect had worn off and-"

"Please, hold me tight!" Haru practically draped herself over Nalea.

" _Please_ , get the fuck off of me," Nalea requested, still trying unsuccessfully to disentangle herself without hurting the girl. The temptation to simply break her spine like a toothpick and run was getting stronger by the second and Nalea was really starting to regret not just letting the girl drown. She did not like having her personal space violated like this. She hated weaklings dammit! "And I'm not a lesbian!"

"Our love can overcome that!" Idly, Nalea wondered if Haru might be distantly related to Bianchi before dismissing the idea. Bianchi was too badass to be related to this… individual.

In an impressive show of athleticism, Nalea leapt back from Haru and then up to the bridge, swinging herself over the rail easily. She used the first person she found there as a human shield. "Stay away from me, you hentai stalker lesbian!"

"Don't touch me, herbivore!" her meat shield shouted, whipping a tonfa out of nowhere.

Tsuna could only gape because in the next instant, Hibari Kyoya's tonfa had been blocked by Virtuoso Nalea's… playing cards? How the hell were playing cards strong enough to deflect tonfa strikes?! A wave of wind radiated from the impact but neither of the fighters lost any ground.

"Wao," Hibari acknowledged.

"Indeed," Nalea smirked. "I need outlet for this rage anyway. A fight sounds great. You don't mind, do you?"

His eyes narrowed in a predatory manner, "Herbivore, for disturbing the peace of Namimori, I'll bite you to death!"

"Oh thank god!" Nalea cheered, lunging.

* * *

Tsuna, Gokudera, Yamamoto, Hana and even Kyoko just stood and stared at the two fighters in awe. That was not something they wanted to get in the middle of. Tsuna cringed back as some rubble went flying past them and landed in the water.

"If you don't hurry you'll be late for school," Reborn pointed out, popping up out of seemingly nowhere, Leon perched innocently on his hat.

"Ah? But what about Nalea-san?" Dame-Tsuna protested.

"She's probably happiest this way," Reborn shrugged. "Just leave her be."

Internally, Reborn was pissed. Nalea had interfered with his student's Family. Sure, she hadn't meant to, but she interrupted what should have been Tsuna's moment. Dame-Tsuna should have learnt a little something about chivalry and gained a loyal subordinate. Instead, Nalea had stepped in and got herself an instant insistent lesbian stalker (just add water). Reborn soothed himself with the idea that it was karma at its finest and he hadn't even needed to interfere personally. That Haru girl was sufficiently obsessive that she would chase after Nalea for years. Reborn smirked.

Served her right.

* * *

Meanwhile, both Hibari and Nalea absolutely loved their fight. Hibari had quite literally never met anyone even close to his own age who could keep up with him for more than a few moments. Nalea had gone almost a week without fighting anyone but Sawabaka's utterly pathetic would-be assassins, who hadn't put up enough of a fight for her high-risk lifestyle to be adequately appeased. They were both sporting glancing injuries and minor bruises and scrapes, but neither was willing to stop.

For the first time in the history of Namimori, Hibari Kyoya skipped school. Sure, he skipped _classes_ all the time because he had no patience for the herbivorous crowding that happened there, but he had _never_ failed to attend school before. Not once. Even when he was sick, he sent Tetsuya in his stead to supervise and kept in close contact with him through the day.

Nalea missed her second ever day of school. She had educated herself independently of course. You had to be smart to survive in the Mafia without ending up as someone's grunt or bitch, so she made it a personal mission to be as smart as she could be and learn as much as possible. Middle school was a waste of her time anyway. She could do much better things. Like fighting.

Around lunchtime a messenger from the Disciplinary Committee was sent out, having drawn the short straw, and went to confirm the whereabouts of their Leader. He was met with a tonfa to the face, a metal-enforced kick to the gut, and the orders not to disturb them. The man lost consciousness before he could relay those orders back to Tetsuya. Fortunately, Kusakabe Tetsuya was smart enough to surmise more or less why the man did not return and wisely elected not to send any subsequent messengers. If Hibari Kyoya did not want to appear on campus, then he would not appear on campus that day and Kami-sama have mercy on the fool who said otherwise.

It was sunset by the time Hibari realized that any continued violence would collapse the bridge they were fighting on. The masonry was already pocked full of holes, huge cracks in the concrete having appeared with each misplaced attack. Seeing as the both of them were very quick and agile, not to mention strong, there were a lot of holes. Footing had become treacherous. As much as Hibari wanted to utterly defeat the… _omnivore_ (and she was still an omnivore, not a carnivore. He knew the difference.) who had trespassed into his territory and violated his personal space, he loved Namimori more. As it was, he would still have to make multiple calls to the nearest construction company and have them repair the bridge. Too many herbivores relied on it to get to school on time for him to allow it to fall into disrepair. Their tardiness would cause further disruption of the peace in Namimori.

Hibari leapt back farther than he had to, head held high. Nalea paused rather than pursue him, dropping her arms and allowing her head to knock to one side. "I'll concede," she decided, smiling genuinely at him from across the ruined bridge. "I just had to get a handle on my bloodlust. Beyond that, I just got a little carried away. Thanks for the fight."

"Where did you come from?" Hibari asked. He somewhat hoped there were more of her.

"Italy," Nalea explained, "but lone wolves always roam a bit." She shrugged.

Had she understood his unstated question or had she just added the extra information voluntarily? "Hn," Hibari noted. "You will speak to me tomorrow during lunch."

Nalea nodded. "See you then."

* * *

The next day, when Haru was trying to give Nalea a lunch bento, she fell flat on her face and came up with a bloody nose. Nalea sincerely hoped the blood came from the impact with the concrete and not from… other reasons. On the other hand, there was free food! That came with a stalker… Nalea decided that it wasn't worth it in the end. Not even if Haru cooked as well as Bianchi. Normally, Nalea would ditch Haru entirely and leave the country, taking another job somewhere else or at the very least avoid her, but under the current circumstances she couldn't. Nalea's schedule was easily predictable, connected as it was to Sawabaka's.

 _Fuck you, Sawabaka._ Nalea glared at him. "Haru," she said, not taking her glare off of Sawabaka, "I am still not a lesbian and I am still not going to marry you. You are a beautiful, independent, driven young woman in the prime of your youth. I'm sure you can find a better catch. One who is actually a lesbian, or maybe even someone who can give you those children you like so much someday." Internally, Nalea cringed, but she kept a straight face. "You should find a better partner. I am obviously…" Nalea suppressed her full-body shudder only through years of practice, "unworthy of your affections." _Please let that be enough. Please get her away from me! Fuck you Sawabaka for getting me into what should obviously be your mess right now!_

"Hahi! Nalea-san is so humble!" Haru cheered. "Haru loves you even more!" Fuck you so hard.

Tsuna was so scared of the glare that he very nearly passed out. She even glared at him without showing her eyes! Tsuna wondered what they looked like, behind the lenses. And what kind of eye condition required you to wear goggles everywhere? Did she sleep with them on? Nalea seemed kinda mad the other day when Haru asked so Tsuna deemed it safest just not to stick his nose in something that wasn't his business.

* * *

"They can't even handle being watchdogs," Hibari observed blandly.

"Would you like me to handle this?" Nalea offered eagerly. A chance to beat up Sawabaka's Family? Sure. Granted, she liked Yamamoto well enough and Hayato was a tolerable sort of person when his sister wasn't around but still… _Sawabaka_.

"Hn," Hibari crushed her hopes.

Hayato had an overconfident assessment of the situation. Actually, his swaggering attempts at intimidation were adorable as far as Nalea was concerned, but she didn't say so. Yamamoto on the other hand was rightfully cautious, though possibly just because he was aware of Hibari's reputation and not because he actually sensed the danger they were in. Nalea noticed Sawabaka asleep on the couch and suppressed her scowl. He should be awake to defend his family, that useless coward.

"This room is now the Vongola Family's hideout," Hayato proclaimed. Nalea didn't even fight the amused smile that pulled at the corners of her lips.

"Family? Type of herding is that?" Hibari-san asked.

"Herding?" Hayato protested.

"It's herding of the Mafia variety," Nalea reported. "The Vongola is generally considered of the stronger end of the spectrum but… what we have here are sub-par specimens. They're still pups that haven't grown into their fangs yet. They are a poor demonstration of the breed that the Mafia usually runs with."

And then Hayato got too close. Hibari-san was very particularly about who was allowed into his personal space. Currently, Kusakabe-san and Nalea had earned the right to stand near him without being struck down. That was it. Hayato most certainly had not. The coffee mug disappeared, shattering faster than Hayato could see and leaving him with nothing in his hands but a ceramic handle.

"I'll have someone clean that up later," Nalea informed Hibari-san. "Until then, I'll get started on the paperwork backlog." Nalea went out of her way to step on the pompadours of the fallen Disciplinary Committee members. She wanted to know if they'd notice when they woke up without someone pointing it out to them.

"Hn," Hibari acknowledged, striking down the first herbivore. He was liking this already. Tetsuya was already a competent subordinate, but this was different. Tetsuya's purpose was to handle the thugs and maintain order within the Committee so Hibari didn't have to. The Wolf Omnivore however could maintain the paperwork side of things. Hibari struck down the second herbivore, a baseball club member.

"That third one is troublesome," the Wolf Omnivore informed him without looking up from her work as a fluffy-haired boy sat up from Hibari's favorite napping couch (the third best place to nap in the whole school - a subject which Hibari had investigated thoroughly over the years) and started making unnecessary noise. Hibari hoped he would be stronger than the others. "Not strong I'm afraid. Just troublesome. You can ignore him if you want, but he's noisy."

Hibari hadn't even needed to ask aloud. It was something over which he heartily approved. The Wolf Omnivore would make a good beta he decided as he moved to remove the bodies of his defeated flock from his immediate territory.

"Nalea-san?! What are you doing here?!" Sawabaka's eyes bugged out of his head in terror, "And why are you wearing a Disciplinary Committee armband?!"

"I joined the Disciplinary Committee," Nalea deadpanned. "Obviously."

"How did that happen?!" Sawabaka demanded.

Nalea smirked as she spoke, "Well…

* * *

 _"You will join the Disciplinary Committee. This is yours," Hibari ordered, holding out a red armband._

 _"Okay," Nalea agreed amiably. "I'll call you Hibari-san then. My name's Virtuoso Nalea."_

 _"Hn. Wolf Omnivore."_

 _She chuckled. "Alright then, Alpha-san."_

* * *

… and that's how it happened." Nalea explained. "Shouldn't you be trying to help your subordinates? They'll get thrown you the window at this rate."

Sawabaka panicked "Do something Rebo-" he realized Reborn wouldn't solve his problems for him and floundered. Until Reborn shot him with a Dying Will Bullet. Nalea decided right then that Reborn was an enabler. There was a brief conflict in which Hibari-san got hit with a slipper, nearly got brained by a coffee bean and Reborn turned Leon into a jitte, stopping Hibari's attack with one arm.

"Wao, you're pretty impressive," Hibari realized happily. There were strong people appearing out of nowhere. _How interesting._ "I'd love to fight you." And for once, it was a request. Hibari recognized a genuine alpha carnivore when he saw one. Just like Nalea had asked permission to fight him (not that he'd hesitated) he would acknowledge that this… (obviously not a) baby was strong and treat him accordingly: as a potential threat.

"Some other time," Reborn dismissed, leaving them with nothing more than a stick of dynamite which promptly exploded.

"Huh," the Wolf Omnivore observed out loud. "Note to self: Buy slippers."

"You will fight me after school," Hibari informed the Wolf Omnivore irritably. He did not appreciate that comment. Apparently she still needed breaking in.

"I'd be delighted." It might take him a while. That was fine though, Hibari was stubborn and he had time.

He watched distantly as the Wolf Omnivore oversaw the cleaning and reassemblage of the room. She directed his subordinates with a clean cut efficiency he approved of. Hibari returned his attention to the window he was standing beside, looking down on the baby and those three herbivores. The herbivores were unimportant but the baby…

"You've seen someone like him before," the Wolf Omnivore observed. It was a vague statement. "A baby with strength and intelligence that no baby should be able to wield… they're called the Arcobaleno. All of them are strong, even the weakest of them, in their own way."

"Strength is strength," Hibari decided. "I'd love to see him again."

The Wolf Omnivore gave him one of the small, closed-mouth smiles he anticipated becoming familiar with. If he could see her eyes, he was sure they would be twinkling. "Reborn?" she asked, "I'm sure he'll see to it. You've interested him too, you know?"

* * *

He appeared soundlessly.

"Reborn," Nalea greeted softly, not turning away from the book in her lap. Reborn noted that it was a copy of _Les Miserables_ in the original French, the full version not the redacted version. She stuck a feather between its pages as a bookmark before closing it and looking up.

"Nalea," he replied, balanced easily on her bedroom windowsill.

The young Baby Hitman sighed at his tone and Reborn was reminded that, despite everything, she was still only thirteen years old. The same age as his student. Granted, Mafia years were like dog years, but still. She was young, at least compared to him. Then again, who wasn't?

"I know my Disciplinary Committee time will cut into my guarding Tsuna time, but I can still handle all the assassins just fine. At least I won't need to take as many mental health days this way because I'll have an outlet for my bloodlust with Hibari-san. I needed a way to safely vent my frustrations without killing anyone around here. Training only does so much and Tsuna keeps pissing me off. He probably will be like that for a while, until your lessons start to stick." Nalea hugged her book to her chest, head lolled to one side, obviously tired but still alert. "Also, in the future, could you please, just please warn me if you're giving Tsuna a lesson? You don't want too many lessons scrapped and I don't want any more Harus happening. I know I acted impulsively and bungled some of your work. For that I am sorry. I won't let it happen again."

"I will consider it," Reborn informed her.

Nalea slumped slightly. "You're an evil little troll, but you knew that right? Greatest Troll in the World? I respect your ability to squash me like a fucking bug, but this does not stop you from being a troll."

The Greatest Hitman in the World just smirked. Kids these days. So cheeky.


	5. The Use of Respect for Invisible Things

**4 – The Use of Respect for Invisible Things**

* * *

Nalea had come to the decision not to fall for any of Reborn's crap unless it was interesting and she actually _wanted_ to get involved with it. The easiest way to do that was to avoid Tsuna (a task much harder than it sounded, that boy got into everything if you left him unattended) as much as possible. (Nalea was also avoiding Haru, but for completely different reasons.) That meant not walking directly next to him on his way to school and instead following him via rooftops from a safe distance. Had she done this, the whole Haru incident would never have happened. In this way, she avoided directly dealing with Sawabaka's eternal fear of Chihuahuas, his first encounter with IPin, and subsequent nervous laughter all the way to school. It was almost peaceful. She even bought a meat bun from what was very obviously a disguised Arcobaleno and gave him a polite smile.

When Sawabaka turned up to class talking about 'supernatural powers' his savior used she flat out laughed. "No, Sawabaka, you saw wrong," Nalea assured him. "There is nothing in this world which cannot be explained by the rational mind. The Supernatural does not exist."

"But the dog _floated!_ " Tsuna insisted.

"So what?" Nalea dismissed. "Rather than just call it a 'supernatural mystery', try and figure it out."

Tsuna gave her a blank, mystified look, begging her for answers with his eyes. "But how did the dog _float?_ " he complained.

"Sawa _baka_ ," she accused.

Tsuna's hit his head with his desk. This was going to be another one of _those_ days, he just knew it.

(He was right.)

* * *

"Hn, that baby isn't here today. How boring," Hibari commented. On anyone else it would have been a complaint, but he was Hibari. Hibari did not complain. Such a thing was beneath him.

The Wolf Omnivore gave her increasingly familiar closed-mouth smile. She did not bare her teeth at him, a choice that pleased him, but Hibari had not yet decided if he despised the gleam across her goggles that he was sure reflected in her eyes or if it interested him. Until then he would tolerate it. "There is a difference between not being seen and not being present," she told him, jerking her chin at a fire hydrant recessed into the wall.

Hibari looked more closely and blinked in surprise, though his expression did not change. Normal fire hydrants did not give out killing intent towards his subordinates.

The Wolf Omnivore just chuckled. "Sorry, Reborn, but isn't it a good thing that I can notice you?"

The face of the fire hydrant fell away, revealing it to be hollow inside and containing a very comfortable and immediately recognizable baby in a miniaturized plush armchair. "I'm surprised you could," the baby admitted.

Hibari couldn't help but be irritated that she could detect what he could- _had_ not. He would have if he had been paying more attention, which he would do in the future. He couldn't afford to have his guard down, not ever.

The Wolf Omnivore's smile was back. "It was a skill I needed, so I worked hard on it," she assured the both of them. "And Reborn, shouldn't you be getting to the roof? I think Tsuna's screaming about something or other up there."

The baby disappeared and Hibari sent his Beta a measuring glance. She didn't move other than to tilt her head to the side obediently, once again demonstrating her submission by subtly bearing her neck.

"Hn. You will handle the situation on the roof," he ordered before stalking away.

"Yes, Hibari-san."

* * *

Nalea only arrived in time to see the tail end of the chaos. IPin's Pinzu-Timed Super Explosion countdown had already reached down to three. Taking a hint from Reborn's book, she bounced the young girl gently back towards Sawabaka, subtly being very careful so as not to hurt her; tiny little IPin was just an adorable little explosion in the making so there was no need to treat the girl roughly.

… And then Tsuna did something unexpected.

* * *

"...When you reanimated, what was your goal that time?" Nalea asked Tsuna, gaze oddly intense.

Tsuna faltered. "I-uh, well." Nalea's intense stare upgraded to a light glare behind her goggles, causing Tsuna to "Hie!" and shout, "I just wanted to save everyone!" before ducking down behind his arms and hiding.

Nalea stopped glaring. She watched Tsuna for a moment. He hadn't lied; he _couldn't_ lie to someone on her level. Frankly, she'd already known the answer by the way he acted earlier. That being said… it was strange to hear out loud. "Sawada Tsunayoshi," Nalea told her cowering classmate, "you have done something that does not make me despise you more." She smiled at him. "Well done."

Tsuna stopped hiding behind his arms and looked around. "Huh?" Nalea had already disappeared. Instead Reborn popped up out of a nearby wall. "HIE!"

"Tsuna, you impressed Virtuoso," Reborn informed him, explaining her odd actions from earlier. "That's not easy for someone like you. Keep this up and you might actually add her to the Family."

"But I don't _want_ to be a Mafia Boss!" Dame-Tsuna protested. Reborn shot at him. It seemed a fairly appropriate gesture.

Tsuna did not agree.

* * *

Nalea was stunned by the 'adult' IPin. (Why the others called her 'Adult IPin' when the girl was only fifteen and just two years older than them she didn't know.) "I'm confused," she admitted out loud.

"Eh? Why?" Tsuna asked.

"IPin being a civilian with a normal life… it's impossible," she observed, almost complaining. "Once the Mafia gets its teeth into you, it doesn't let go. Not ever. No matter how much you run, it will follow you. Some things are impossible. Leaving the Mafia behind is one of them." Tsuna heard the bitterness in her voice and wondered if Nalea-san had ever tried something like that. If she had, it obviously hadn't worked. She was still here (and very scary about it).

"My master sealed the Pinzu-Timed Super Explosion," IPin explained.

"So… it's gone?" Nalea asked, baffled. "You don't have people coming after you for revenge or 'one last job' or begging for your secrets or-"

"No, Nalea-san," IPin denied earnestly, obviously understanding where Nalea was coming from and explaining accordingly. "I-"

"TAIL HEAD!" Lambo shouted. He wanted his new friend back, not this girl, and she wasn't there! Of course, his appearance somehow made IPin have a flashback to a 'broccoli-monster' and unlocked the Pinzu-Timed Super Explosion. She latched onto Tsuna and didn't let go.

Nalea sighed in relief. Not that she _wanted_ that sweet little girl to be a part of the Mafia, far from it. If Nalea had her way, the Mafia would never darken _anyone's_ lives. But she knew an impossible task when she saw one. There were some things that she could change and others she could not. There were some 'impossible' things that could be overcome. The Mafia though… the Mafia was there to stay. Seeing IPin like that, it had almost made her hopeful again. And hope was far too dangerous a thing to hold in her heart.

It had been a long time since Nalea had first started hoping for freedom. She didn't even remember what it felt like, not really, but she wanted it. She wanted it so badly. Nalea didn't remember what it felt like to run because she wanted to and not because she had to get away from something. Freedom sounded like the most amazing thing in the world. And yes, she worked towards her freedom. But Nalea had long since stopped hoping so fervently. She would struggle on alone. Freedom from Iemitsu came first. _Then_ came freedom from the Mafia, if that part could be done at all. Iemitsu was the much more immediate threat and plenty dangerous all on his own.

"Let that be a lesson, Tsuna," Nalea told him, carelessly walking out from behind the wall she had taken shelter with, "if you want peace, you can never stop struggling for it. It is those who want peace the most who must be most able to defend it."

Reborn smirked. Nalea made something of a good teacher's assistant, when she wasn't too busy being impulsive and causing trouble. "If humans could change so easily, they wouldn't have to go through as many hardships. That's why they need to put in effort every day," he agreed. "Great lesson, huh, Tsuna?"

Tsuna just moaned from the sidewalk where he lay, covered in soot. Nalea scowled and kicked him in the head. "Sawabaka, listen when people talk."

* * *

Nalea enjoyed her new routine. She didn't have to deal with half of Tsuna's chaos - which was nice - and she got more time to herself.

Granted, Nalea's version of 'time to herself' generally meant training by herself, refurbishing her house (and preparing it for assault _extensively_ ), training with Hibari-san, information mining, and planning for the future. While she did not and would not shirk her duties as Tsuna's protector from assassins, she had absolutely no interest in associating with him more than absolutely necessary. She shadowed him back and forth from school each day and had classes with him. She ate her lunch on the roof, far enough away not to be seen but close enough to interfere if a threat came within range.

Nalea resented the fact that she had no choice but to establish a routine, but reminded herself that she could handle anyone who was uninteresting enough to pop up out of nowhere this far out in the 'boonies' of the Mafia and any big fish that came along would make waves before they could arrive. This was not as comforting as she wanted it to be.

* * *

Nalea did not like Sasagawa Kyoko. She did not begrudge the girl her naïveté, no matter how much it grated her. Nalea did not care about her weakness or air-headedness or even the flowers and goddamn _sparkles_ the girl's aura seemed to carry with her wherever she went. No. Nalea could ignore all of that. Up until that morning, she might have even tolerated the girl's presence without it inevitably increasing her seemingly inevitable rage and bloodlust. Then she saw how Kyoko interacted with her brother. Kyoko clearly had no idea the impact of what she was saying had over him.

"Tsuna-kun, you can always just ignore the things he says about boxing and stars." "Right? He's always too passionate." "He's such a boor, my brother."

If Nalea knew one thing, it was that _family stands by each other_. They do not support casually putting each other down. They do not belittle each other's interests. They do not become so accustomed to the unthinking jibes that they don't even acknowledge them any more. Because Nalea could see that little flicker that lit up behind Sasagawa Ryohei's eyes and she didn't like it. It wasn't a flicker of anger or hurt but _guilt_ that struck through him at his sister's word. There was a story there, but Nalea didn't care what it was. Virtuoso Nalea would not allow this to continue.

Reborn could have his fun, teach Tsuna whatever lesson it was, maybe even add the older white haired boy to his ever-growing family, and then Nalea would step in. Sasagawa Ryohei would be under her protection.

"Still he can be surprisingly kind," Kyoko admitted finally, unfortunately after her brother had left earshot. "I haven't seen him that happy for a while."

Nalea dropped down from where she had been watching the exchange in the second-floor window, appearing behind the thoughtless girl with hardly a sound and scaring the crap out of Tsuna while she was at it. "When was the last time anyone showed interest in his boxing?" Nalea asked, falsely casual, not that anyone short of Reborn was around to actually notice. Kyoko didn't answer. "Do you often attend his matches or cheer on his practices?"

"No," Kyoko admitted, "I never support violence."

Nalea ignored Tsuna as he internally withered (violence = Mafia = Tsuna = Kyoko's disapproval was written all over his face) and focused on the girl. "Kyoko, your brother must love you very much," she decided. She could not imagine another reason for him to bear being near someone like his sister. It was sad.

Kyoko beamed and a fresh wave of sparkles and flowers appeared. "Thank you!"

Nalea turned and left. (It wasn't a compliment.)

Tsuna watched her go, confused. He knew he had missed something, but he wasn't sure what. Unfortunately, he was still to scared of Nalea-san to ask what she had meant.

* * *

"Tsuna's going to fight Ryohei this afternoon," Reborn informed Nalea. "I want you there."

The young bounty hunter shrugged. "Sounds interesting. Sure." Reborn didn't leave. "Go ahead and ask," Nalea invited. "You'll just find out somehow anyway so no point in me hiding anything."

"Your dislike for Sasagawa Kyoko," Reborn noted. "Where did that come from? It started unexpectedly." And Reborn did not like things that he did not expect.

"That girl does not understand anything about family," Nalea explained, firmly annoyed but recognizing it wasn't Reborn she was mad at and careful not to direct her frustrations at him. She valued her life, thank you very much. "She is not good enough. I still dislike the Sawabaka," she insisted, "but I do not want for the Tenth Vongola to be weak. He should choose a better crush, one that is not so ignorantly cruel to her own blood kin or persistently oblivious to her brother's pain. Besides, she 'does not support violence'. As such she should be kept far, far away from the Mafia. When the time comes for blood to be shed, as you must know that it eventually will, they will condemn themselves enough as it is. First kills are never easy, especially for the civilian born. They will not need her reaction to cope with too."

"Tsuna likes her," Reborn pointed out, lowering his fedora to hide .

"That doesn't mean she's good for him," Nalea rebuked. "She is normal, and pretty and wasn't mean to him at a time when he was vulnerable. Throw in a little Oedipus Complex and that's all it is. Yes, Tsuna likes her, but he does not _love_ her." Nalea ran a hand through her hair and sighed. For a moment, she pulled off her goggles and massaged her eyes, looking far world-wearier than any thirteen year old had the right to be. "I'll look after the older Sasagawa, you handle the younger. Do as you see fit, Reborn. Far be it from me to be able to stop you. I'll see you at the match."

Reborn raised an eyebrow. Nalea would look after the older Sasagawa? Ryohei probably didn't need looking after in the traditional sense, and yet Nalea was willing to try anyway. Did she really know what she was doing or did she just blindly want to help? She was called the Victims Revenge, not the Angel of Mercy; there was a reason she went looking for the bad guys instead of protecting the good guys. Reborn considered the possibility of Nalea knowing how to build someone up and not just tear them down. If she could… that could prove useful. If she liked a person of course. She might just make it worse on purpose otherwise, purely out of spite.

* * *

Nalea scowled. It was insulting to watch Tsuna's 'fight' with Sasagawa. She hadn't expected him to win, at least not without a Dying Will bullet in his brain, but she had hoped that he would at least _try_ and take a few swings under his own power. Nalea could see his feeble attempts at dodging, but not even the slightest twitch to indicate intent to attack. Sawabaka wasn't even trying to win. He doubted himself too much. Nalea understood, to a certain extent, that he was paralyzing himself with self-doubt and overthinking things, but that did not stop her from criticizing his lack of action. If this were a real fight, Sawabaka would be dead by now.

He could learn a thing or ten from Sasagawa. Doing absolutely everything with your Dying Will… was incredible. If he were any Flame other than Sun it would be unsustainable and he'd have burnt himself out ages ago. Instead, the constant drain had done nothing but expand his reserves. Nalea guessed that he started off as a perfectly average person before he started applying himself to life as much as he did. He would never have gotten so far otherwise. Nalea realized that Sasagawa Ryohei was in fact not a fighter; he was a _competitor_. He wanted to win and to do that he had to go up against his opponents physically since he wasn't one for mental disputes. There was nothing 'violent' about it. Going up against an opponent, giving it his all, and coming out on top was what he lived for. So it was no surprise that Tsuna's perceived lack of respect for Sasagawa's will as an opponent had him near tears, though he did an 'extreme' job of covering it up (probably too much practice with Kyoko, Nalea's mind supplied cynically).

Nalea found it pathetic that Tsuna required a dying will bullet to refuse the Boxing Club offer. To fight and win against Sasagawa, sure, of course he'd need help. He was a useless twig of a boy after all. Saying 'no' and standing up for his own interests should not take every last iota of willpower he possessed and nobody should need that much prompting just to speak for himself like that. If Nalea had needed that much help to get up off her ass and deal with what shit life threw in front of her then she wouldn't even be _alive_ today. She fought for what she wanted and she got it, dammit. And fuck anyone who got in her way or tried to tell her what to do. (She deliberately did not think of Iemitsu or her presence here in Namimori. That was unavoidable and not something she intended to allow to continue. Nalea had a _plan_ for Iemitsu and it would be glorious! – If she lived.)

When… _did those people seriously call themselves the Karate Club? Pathetic_ … when they showed up, Nalea debated with herself. On one hand, she could let them kidnap Kyoko and let the girl see the use of 'violence'. On the other: stress relief. Stress relief was deemed more immediately important than life lessons for little bitches who probably wouldn't learn anyway. Beating the shit out of people was always a nice way to relax.

Nalea leapt into action, jumping over the attacks of the others and executing quick but devastating physical attacks to vulnerable areas. She didn't want to leave any permanent damage, but that didn't stop her from hitting hard and being brutally effective. She finished just in time to see Tsuna actually knock a guy out cold. Well, on Reborn's orders anyway, but still. He was clearly the leader too. Tsuna was defending his Family (even if she still didn't like Kyoko). Tsuna's actions did deserve _some_ sort of reaction from her in reward so…

"Tsuna, adequately done. Next time keep your thumb outside your fist. If you hit like that any harder and you're not wearing boxing gloves like that, you'll break your thumb," she instructed before turning away with a fwip of her long blonde hair and turning to face Ryohei, resolutely ignoring Tsuna's 'HIE' of alarm at the thought of breaking any of his bones. "You," she addressed the older white haired student, "after school, I'm taking you to Takesushi and we'll talk. Okay?"

He extremely agreed.

Tsuna 'hie'ed and nearly fainted. He seemed to be under the impression that the scary Nalea-san had just asked his very extreme Ryohei-nii out on a date and that this could only result in an _extremely_ scary Nalea-san. He was mistaken of course, but nobody who realized the situation for what it was bothered correcting him. Granted, Tsuna's only example of Hitman 'courting habits' was Bianchi, and she had tried to kill him and kidnap her lover so it was easy for him to get confused. Reborn in particular found it amusing. He also kicked Tsuna in the head for his misunderstanding, but didn't bother explaining why. He needed to figure these things out for himself eventually.

* * *

"You are going to meet me here every week at this time, barring extreme exceptions such as hospitalization or death, okay?" Nalea demanded, sliding comfortably into a seat on the opposite side of the booth from the Namimori Boxing Club Leader.

"Why?" Ryohei asked. It wasn't a denial or a refusal, he just didn't know what it was that she wanted. Actually, come to think of it, she hadn't actually given him her name. Or had he extremely forgotten it? Yeah, it was probably that.

"Because I want to talk to you," Nalea shrugged. "You are only ever heard by shouting all over the place, and even then nobody listens properly. I find that abhorrent, and the shouting is bad for my ears. I need my ears in my profession, so whatever you need to say, you can say to me using a normal indoor voice."

Ryohei stared for a minute. This was a girl. But Ryohei was not fool enough to think for even a second that that made her weak. It was just that… he had never expected to ever meet a woman as strong as his mother had been. She had been extremely strong. "Are you strong?" Ryohei couldn't help but ask. He hoped she was.

"I can tell you without hesitation that I am stronger than you. You only box. While that's great, if I break your expected rules of combat, I can and _will_ win undisputedly. And seeing as I'm not even sure what the restrictions of boxing are entirely, that's sure to happen. While I acknowledge and respect the fact that you are a better _boxer_ than I am, yes, I'm stronger than you by a mile," she confirmed, giving him a fair explanation as to why. Granted, she didn't explain why or how she had accumulated that strength, but she didn't plan to. That was none of his business.

"I just box, I don't fight outside of that - not anymore," Ryohei agreed, not quite able to meet Nalea's eyes. Fighting was a bit of a touchy subject for him ever since that incident. "My sister doesn't want me to get hurt."

Nalea frowned. Now was _not_ the time for a tirade against Sasagawa Kyoko, no matter how much she'd like to. It simply wouldn't due to insult Sasagawa-san's little sister after all, at least not right in front of him right in the beginning. So she said something else designed to heal the damage instead of redirect it to where it was more deserved. "Getting hurt is a natural and essential part of life and growing up. It's healthy," she shrugged. "Sometimes you get scars in the process, but that's a good thing. Scars mean victory. They mean you overcame and healed. Scars mean that you got stronger and you survived your mistake long enough to learn from it. I am proud of my scars and you should be to."

Ryohei was curious, and he was also rather tactless. She he asked the question he wanted to without thinking that it might be rude or too personal. "What kind of scars?"

If she had been the type, Nalea would have slapped herself over being asked that kind of question. She remembered her scars. She remembered every needle, every blade and every bullet that entered her skin. She remembered other things too, the needles and the pain. But it was probably a little more than Ryohei was ready to hear for her to explain fully. A half lie then, a small misdirection. "Oh I've got lots of scars," she shrugged. "They're mostly the kind given to children by adults. I overcame _that_ years ago. Some of them are from mistakes or carelessness – complacency and naïveté that I no longer possess." Nalea expertly ignored the phantom pain from the bottom of her right foot. It had healed years ago, but thinking about it could still make the mark twinge with pain. She wanted Ryohei to be able to trust her, to speak freely with her. It would be unfair of Nalea not to do the same. Or at least, allow him to think she was being fully honest. She wasn't, but she was still being more honest than she was comfortable with and that was good enough to earn his trust.

Ryohei frowned at what she said. What kind of parents did Nalea have? Or rather, she said she'd overcome that so what kind of parents did she _used_ to have? At least she was free now. Contrary to the impression he gave, Ryohei was not an unobservant idiot. He just chose to act like one sometimes (all the time). People tended to be more honest around those they thought wouldn't understand, so he didn't mind playing the fool slightly.

"So big scars then?" Ryohei asked. He didn't have to reach up and touch his own scar. He had done that a few times when he first got it and had broken the habit almost instantly when he noticed that Kyoko got upset over it. He could ignore his scar even when people were staring at it, which they did sometimes.

"Yes, Sasagawa-san," Nalea agreed. "Big scars. They're healed now, and that's what matters."

"Don't call me Sasagawa-san, call me onii-san, okay?" he said.

Nalea was stunned into considering his offer. She had never had a brother before - or at least not that she remembered anyway. She wasn't sure since those memories were very much so sealed away. But then again, Ryohei was her responsibility now. She had told Reborn and everything. It may as well be official. "Okay, Ryohei-nii-san," she agreed. "You can call me Leah, okay? That's what my close friends call me. I know it's hard to pronounce in Japanese, but I don't mind. It's worth it, don't you think?"

"Very much, Leah-imoto." (He pronounced it 'Ria', but that was okay.)

* * *

Hibari and Nalea were having another one of their silent stare-downs. It was getting quite common really. Hibari was a silent sort of creature by nature and Nalea could understand him just fine despite that. They often had whole conversations without speaking a word. Sometimes though, in those comparatively rare times when his irritation or impatience outweighed his silence, Hibari would speak anyway.

"Why do you choose to associate with that Herbivore?" he asked.

The Wolf Omnivore gave him her familiar closed-mouth smile. "Because I can help him."

The Boxing Herbivore was weaker than the Wolf Omnivore. There was no reason for her to associate with him and even less reason for her to help him. It was unnecessary.

The Wolf Omnivore shook her head. "If I can help someone to get stronger, I will. I won't do the work for him, I despise weaklings like that more than anything. But for those that want to get stronger and just need help learning how, I will assist them. Being strong is not easy for other people as it is for a born Carnivore like you. But not all Herbivores are willing to just roll over and show their stomachs over every little thing. The stronger the pack, the better, don't you think?"

Why did no one else understand the world in the same simple terms as the Wolf Omnivore? Granted her perspectives were not the same as his, he would have just bitten the Boxing Herbivore to death for wasting his time and left him lying in a puddle of his own blood as a motivator to do better in the future. If the Boxing Herbivore didn't get the message then he would just repeat it until it stuck.

The smile did not fade. "That's why _you're_ the Carnivore and _I'm_ the Omnivore," the Wolf grinned, bearing just the tips of her teeth.

Well that made sense then.


	6. The Boss and His Turtle

**5 - The Boss and His Turtle**

* * *

Nalea took one look at this set up and frowned. Tsuna's room - his personal space - had been violated in his absence. The Chiavarone Boss was there ahead of him with a large wingback chair and two of his men. His subordinates had surrounded the house and very obviously had the ability to hurt the people in it. Tsuna was outclassed and outmatched on his own turf by another Sky. Had Reborn been _trying_ to instigate a Sky Rivalry between his students? That seemed slightly insane. Sky rivalry should be taken seriously, not just used as some kind of test. Nalea supposed that seeing Tsuna go into Rivalry might be interesting, but suspected that he would have lost that fight (if only it had happened) and lost badly.

But the fact of the matter is that it _wasn't_ happening. Tsuna wasn't getting angry or aggressive about this new Sky on his territory. Hell, he wasn't even defensive. It's like he didn't even care than a potential threat and obvious competitor had appeared right in front of him. (Granted, he was freaking out about some random Mafia guy popping out of nowhere, but that was fine. Tsuna always acted like that.) There was a complete absence of Sky Rivalry.

 _Why?_ Nalea did not pretend to be an expert on Skies, but she guessed that the lack of competition was due to a higher Harmonization factor than normal, or maybe a similar frequency. _If the potential that two of them had to get along outweighed the circumstances of their initial meeting, that might explain the lack of instinctive hostilities going on here._ She guessed.

She wasn't entirely wrong either - the potential Sky resonance between the Dino and Tsuna was massive and definitely a factor, but it wasn't the whole story. Dino was by nature a generally non threatening Sky, primarily focused on protection instead of aggression. And as for Tsuna… well, Tsuna was probably the most accepting Sky ever. He could and would accept anyone and everyone he met on the sole condition that he could sympathize with them. Tsuna was a naturally sympathetic person. He sympathized even with his enemies on occasion. (This was something Nalea would not discover until the Kokuyo Land Incident.) The only reason that the two Skies didn't immediately click into Resonance was the circumstances of their meeting. (Which is exactly why Reborn orchestrated their introduction the way he did. Resonance when one Sky didn't yet have a full set of Guardians could be… _problematic_. Best not get into that.)

Casual observations done, Nalea decided that Dino Chiavarone looked like a cool guy. Then again, appearances didn't really mean much in the Mafia business. He seemed to be perfectly capable of having an intimidating conversation with Tsuna, but that wasn't saying much either. Chihuahuas intimidated Tsuna. It exactly wasn't very challenging. Nalea could intimidate him just by breathing.

"Quick question," Nalea interjected when she got a moment. "Did you carry that giant black leather armchair up the stairs yourself or is that why you have an excessive two extra subordinates in the room with you inside an already secured location? Followed by my secondary question: is that chair as comfortable as it looks and where did you get it?"

Dino blinked in surprise. "Uh, it's Italian."

Nalea nodded wisely, "All the best things are – except for Vodka. Vodka must always be Russian." This statement was accepted in full as a matter of fact and the conversation continued.

"Yes, we carried it up," Romario confirmed.

"All I needed to know," Nalea shrugged. "Reborn, am I done for the day or do you want me to stick around a bit longer?"

"You can give me your daily report later. Stay for now," he ordered. Nalea huffed but complied. It's not like she was stupid enough to try and say no to the Greatest Hitman in the World even if she did feel like she had better things to do.

Nalea leaned against the windowsill, scowling quietly as Dino was telling Tsuna horror stories about training with Reborn. Or at least they sounded like they were supposed to be horror stories. Nalea certainly didn't think they sounded so bad. Dino got to fight a bear. That sounded awesome. Maybe Reborn would let her fight the bear after Tsuna was done with it? (Or rather, after it was done with Tsuna, she wasn't picky. That could work.)

And then Tsuna just had to go and mention how he had no intention of taking over the Vongola. He physically leapt back from the force of the glare Nalea leveled at him, paling slightly. He also got himself kicked in the head by Reborn.

Dino on the other hand just smiled gently at him "Reborn's skill is undeniable…" Dino pointed out mildly. "If you're so sure," Dino reached into his jacket at about the height a chest holster would usually be but Nalea didn't bother moving. Not only was it perfectly obvious that Dino would never hurt a hair on Sawabaka's head and that Reborn wouldn't bring a genuine threat anywhere near his student, but it was also common knowledge that he didn't use guns. "He'll bite you!" Of all things to threaten someone with, Chiavarone chose a cute little turtle. _Meh, not impressed._ "He's a sponge turtle and his name is Enzio."

 _Shit_. "Can I hold him?" Nalea asked, interrupting suddenly. She hated how hopeful her voice sounded.

"Yeah, sure," Chiavarone agreed, handing over the small amphibian.

She accepted Enzio reverently and gently cradled him to her chest, keeping him warm and gently stroking his head. Nalea ignored her silent tears up until they started to obscure her vision, collecting on the inside of her goggles where no one could see them. Closing her eyes, she pulled the goggles off and used the hem of her shirt to dry them out with one hand while the other continued petting the turtle.

"HIE?! Nalea-san! You-You're crying!" Tsuna screamed.

"Shut up," she ordered blandly, not wanting to deal with the Sawabaka's existence right then, much less hold a conversation with him. "I like this turtle," she explained simply. "He makes me happy. I'll give him back later, Chiavarone-san."

"Uh, okay?" Dino allowed. He was giving her a funny look, but she didn't care.

Nalea knew perfectly well that she was being silly, but she didn't want to put the turtle down yet. His name was Enzio. She didn't care that he was a turtle. That part didn't matter to her. The name Enzio brought up memories she did not want to forget – memories of comfort and home and happiness and _rightness_ that had long since been ripped away from her. So if holding the turtle made her feel better then gods damn it, she would hold the turtle. Nalea may have been willing to ignore the weirdness of the turtle cradling and crying she was doing, but everyone else was kind of staring at her, Reborn more contemplatively than his students were.

The awkward silence was eventually broken by Lambo's grenades as he ran through the room with IPin. Nalea easily deflected them away from Tsuna out the window, towards where Dino's men were waiting for the meeting to end. He leapt into action in a show of skill and open-heartedness that impressed the two thirteen year olds in the room.

"You got it?" Reborn lectured the Dame-Tsuna. "The Boss risks his life for the Family."

"That guy's so cool," Tsuna muttered to himself.

"I like him," Nalea decided with an air of finality. "He's got his head on straight, even if it's a little crooked."

"Huh?"

"Never mind, Sawabaka." Nalea sighed in exasperation. "You obviously wouldn't understand."

* * *

Nana requested that Nalea and Dino stay the night. Dino consented graciously, dismissing his subordinates to their hotel for the night. Nalea conceded to stay for dinner, but only dinner. She did not do sleepovers, thank you very much. And she was only staying for dinner because the leftovers in her fridge smelled funny last she checked and were starting to turn odd colors. From experience she knew that they probably wouldn't kill her, but mold still tasted funny because of the fuzzy texture and she recognized that Nana's cooking was significantly better both in terms of her continued nutrition and the taste, even if it couldn't kill her.

Seemingly inevitably conversation turned to Tsuna's Family. "He's got Yamamoto Takeshi and Gokudera Hayato the Smoking Hurricane Bomb while Hibari and Ryohei are still candidates. Plus Nalea…" Reborn glanced at her significantly.

A reflective gleam slid across her goggles and she sniffed disapprovingly. "He can try," Nalea informed them scornfully. "But I will answer to the Sawabaka when Hell freezes over. He's not good enough."

"We'll see how that goes," Reborn conceded temporarily. They all (minus Tsuna) knew that it would be damn near impossible to get a better Lightning Guardian than Virtuoso Nalea. Hell, if Dino didn't always have a full set he might even try and poach her for his own Family. She was a damn powerful figure to have on your side and any Sky would be blind not to want her as their Guardian despite her young age.

It was established that Dino was a complete klutz without his family, which amused Nalea to no end. She delighted in subtly throwing food at him, instructing him to catch it in his mouth and watching his failure. He had been hit in the eye several times now and had yet to notice the growing pile of rice that she had stealthily snagged in his hair on top of his head.

And then when Nana sent Lambo out of the room to take a bath and wash all the food out of his afro which had accumulated over the course of the meal, the little boy screamed. Dino tripped onto the floor and Nalea brazenly stepped on his back as she charged to the child's aid. When Dino and Tsuna finally made it around the corner, they saw Nalea holding Lambo up and away from an engorged Enzio.

"I gave him back to you five minutes ago," Nalea informed Dino harshly. "How did you lose him? And how did he get this big?"

"He's a sponge turtle," Dino said, pulling out his whip. "Don't worry, I've got this!"

"I swear, if you hurt that adorable, sweet turtle I'll shave your head in your sleep and the entirety of the straight female and gay male population will mourn the death of your beautiful golden locks," Nalea threatened him. "Enzio is just another victim here and I will not see him penalized for your negligence!"

"R-right."

All in all, diner went well.

* * *

Nalea frowned at her own attitude. She was being too cynical and depressive for her own tastes. When Dino's subordinates 'happened' to swing by to see him, she thought it was adorable. And then when Gokudera and Yamamoto showed up to see Tsuna, she thought they were idiots. The contrast was too harsh and she decided to go easier on the two young Mafioso-to-be. They were not culpable for the weakness of their Boss and it would be unfair to treat them like they were. Nalea knew she shouldn't allow her personal preconceptions to color her reactions to people, but it was difficult to actively put into practice.

"Move your ass already, Sawabaka. I want to get out of here before- too late." Haru had appeared. "Oh, hi Haru," Nalea greeted quickly. She fished her house keys out of her pocket quickly and chucked them as far as she could in a random direction. "Crap! I need those!" Haru chased after then, shouting something about maiden spirits, love and dedication. There may also have been a romantic prince analogy in there somewhere. Nalea wasn't sure. She blocked her out as best she could.

Tsuna stared at her. "That was horrible," he told her. "How do you sleep at night?"

"Simple, I don't feel guilty," Nalea shrugged. "She brought this on herself." Nalea felt no need to disclose the fact that she _didn't_ get much sleep at night without nightmares and paranoia startling her awake, but that it had absolutely _nothing_ to do with her treatment of Haru. She honestly _didn't_ care about Haru.

"But you're being mean," Tsuna insisted.

"I refuse to be guilty for not being a lesbian," Nalea maintained firmly. "Would you pretend to be a lesbian just to make someone else feel better? No, of course not. So don't go asking ridiculous things of me."

Tsuna was confused enough that he held his silence. Or maybe his next words were simply interrupted by his signature 'HIE!' scream as he was roped into a moving vehicle as it tore down the road and kidnapped.

Nalea took off after the red sports car like a bullet, tearing down the road. As it slowed slightly to make a turn, she leapt and successfully latched onto the trunk, denting the metal with her bare fingers as she did so. The car rounded the corner just before Gokudera and Yamamoto would have been able to see which way it went and they lost it. Quickly and efficiently, Nalea climbed up the back of the car onto the roof, leaving footprints as she moved and thoroughly terrifying the driver. She punched through the (bulletproof) glass window, grabbed the Sawabaka and leapt away, holding him princess style and skidding to a stop on the sidewalk due to their momentum.

Romario managed to stop the car before it hit anything. Nalea was impressed, considering she was pretty sure she'd blown one of their tires somewhere in that exchange.

"You didn't have to kill the car," Reborn casually pointed out, noting how aside from the car there had been no casualties or injuries of any kind.

"Yeah, well, it was kinda fun," Nalea shrugged. "Besides, it's obviously a rental. Now Dino gets to explain how he managed to get footprints on the car's roof to the dealer." She smirked. That would be a fun story.

"Nice job, you saved your Boss," Dino smiled proudly at her as he climbed out of his (dead) car with slightly shaky limbs.

"He is not my Boss, nor is he even my employer," she corrected mercilessly, a dark tone edging into her voice. "Tsunayoshi is merely my protectorate and that is all he ever will be. Now, what's all this nonsense about the Momokyokai?"

Reborn explained that it was a real Yakuza group and that Yamamoto and Gokudera were really going after them to 'rescue' Tsuna. Dino hadn't known they were real and Tsuna was panicking.

"Meh," Nalea decided callously. "They'll be fine. I got my daily shot of adrenaline. Have fun being late to school, Tsuna."

"Eh?" He realized, "You called me by my real name."

"Yeah, I only ever call you Sawabaka when I'm pissed with you for something," she explained lightly, "I just got to do meaningless violence so I'm in a pretty good mood right now."

"You call me Sawabaka literally all time."

Nakea raised a dainty blonde eyebrow at him, "Your point is?"

Tsuna paused before backtracking, "I'll just go save Yamamoto and Gokudera now."

"Right. Bye." She held up a disinterested hand in farewell.

* * *

Naturally, Nalea followed them anyway from a distance for the free entertainment. She got to mock three different people's faces at once, making it worth the effort. This of course regardless of the fact that it was daylight hours and therefore Nalea was responsible for Tsuna's safety and _had_ to accompany him everywhere whether she wanted to or not. Damn she hated Iemitsu.

Surprisingly, she chose the same perch as Reborn. The Baby Hitman was honored that he allowed her to stay and proud that she'd chosen what was obviously the best spot if the Greatest Hitman in the World chose it too. She watched quietly as Reborn fired the Fist Shots and Tsuna flew into Dying Will Mode. Instinctively the three Family members (and Dino) went back to back, defending each other's weaknesses and covering for them.

"They're already starting to resemble an actual Family," Nalea realized. "I mean I knew there was a reason everyone calls you the best, but still. It's kinda awesome to see in person."

"Hnmn. They have the potential," Reborn pointed out.

"I'm impressed with _you_ not them," she reminded him flatly, turning away from the show.

* * *

"I'm convinced now," Dino said happily as he got himself and his Family ready to leave, "I can leave Tsuna to you guys."

"Only because I'm getting paid," Nalea reminded him mercilessly. "Otherwise I'd be halfway around the world actually enjoying myself right now."

"That goes without saying," Dino nodded indulgently.

Even as Gokudera and Yamamoto agreed with Dino's praise, Nalea narrowed her eyes at the elder Boss. She got the impression that he thought he was humoring her. She sniffed at him. Dino was wrong. Nalea had _nothing_ to do with the small Family Tsuna was starting and she never would. The second her business here was done she would be in the wind.

Tsuna invited them all over to dinner.

"If there's free food, some of it's mine," Nalea called out. Free food was always worth it. As someone who had some variation of starved or starving most of her life, Nalea knew the value of food.

* * *

Nalea executed her normal rounds at the end of the day. She did one final lap around the town's rooftops, checking for assassins (there were none at all today and only two the day before and it was making her edgy how few there were compared to usual) before heading back to her own house (reluctantly using the front door) and curling up on top of her blankets with a thick book, planning to read for a half hour or so before trying to sleep.

Nalea had scarcely sat down and hadn't even opened her book before Reborn appeared on her windowsill.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" she asked, only barely keeping a hold of her sarcasm. It was not healthy to be sarcastic to one of if not the most powerful man alive, but Nalea was tired damn it all and it had been a long day dealing with strangers near her protectorate and she just wanted to decompress and grab what sleep her daily nightmares would allow her to get.

"You were quite enthusiastic this afternoon," he observed. "One might think you actually wanted to rip Dino's head off instead of that car door."

"You think that's about Tsuna too, huh?" Nalea snorted. "Look. I hate the kid. He's a little shit. Sure he's got some damn tempting Sky Flames that hang around him like some kind of fucking heat haze every time you shoot him with those damn bullets of yours. I can see that and I acknowledge that. I would be a fool to ignore it. He's a powerful Sky and that's great and all, but that does _not_ mean I want to be his Guardian."

"So you are tempted," Reborn concluded.

She sighed in response. Thirteen was too young to be handling what she was handling. And this wasn't about Tsuna at all. Not really. "Reborn. Look at it this way. He's a Sky. I'm an element of comparable age, purity, strength and – though I will never tell him this – I can see the sheer fuck-ton of raw potential he has access to as soon as he decides to stop being a little shit about everything. Of course I'm fucking tempted. _But._ " Nalea pulled off her goggles to meet Reborn's eyes properly, intensity shining through the seemingly liquidized golden metal that passed for her irises. "I will never Bond with a Sky that does not take his end of the bargain seriously or at the very least can defend himself, if not his Guardians in return. I will never Bond with a Sky who I associate with Sawada-teme in any way. I will not Bond with a Sky that cannot understand the darkness that has stained my very being. And because of this, I _cannot_ bond with Sawada Tsunayoshi. That is not a mistake that I am going to make. In the end I would only hurt us _both_ , can't you see that?"

"And if none of those things were in the way?" Reborn asked, blithely ignoring her question.

"In a fucking heartbeat," Nalea allowed honestly. "Maybe even less. _Probably_ less. I have nothing against having a Sky and would actually rather be a Guardian than a Hitman, but those cards aren't on the table. You and I both know that Tsuna does not and cannot meet my requirements. So me pining after him as a Sky is just not going to happen."

Reborn smirked at her superiorly. "You won't allow yourself to be his Guardian, so you're just going to guard him."

With her eyes uncovered, it was painfully obvious how miserable Nalea was about that fact, despite her callous words. "Yeah. This is where I revisit the fact that Iemitsu-teme is a right bastard."

"Still. It was a shame that Dino's car was destroyed," Reborn remarked, ever the expensive hedonist. "It was beautiful."

"Yeah, but it was worth the fun I had destroying it in my opinion," Nalea shrugged. "Car chases are fun."

He raised an eyebrow at her before pointing out, "You didn't have a car."

"But I still cased one," Nalea beamed, "That was fun."


	7. The Pervert Doctor Must Die!

**6 - The Pervert Doctor Must Die**

* * *

Tsuna was in the middle of a soccer match when Nalea first detected it: Skullitis. She didn't point it out to the poor victim though. On no. She just let him think he was hearing voices and going crazy and left everything to Reborn. (She had learned that lesson after Haru. The crazy civilian girl was still trying to convince Nalea that their love could overcome… the fact that it didn't really exist. Or something. Suffice to say Nalea was never sticking herself into the middle of one of Reborn's schemes again without asking first!) Nalea was certain that none of her reaction to Tsuna's Skullitis showed on her face even as she silently memorized what the skulls were saying. There was no telling when that information might be useful in the future, but that's another story.

Reborn was dressed like the grim reaper as he told Tsuna what was happening. Nalea thought it was ironic but Tsuna didn't seem to see the humor of it. The Vongola heir tried to go into denial but the Hitmen didn't let him.

"It's common knowledge that if you get hit in the head with ten Dying Will Bullets that something bad will happen," Nalea shrugged. "I had no idea you could spontaneously develop Skullitis though. Huh. I guess you learn something new every day."

"Too bad," Reborn agreed. "His life was short but miserable."

"Do something!" Tsuna demanded hysterically. Tsuna was often hysterical. Nalea was not overly impressed.

"I _am_ your bodyguard," Nalea admitted. "But I do not guard against germs or diseases. That's beneath me. And I certainly don't get paid to guard against Reborn. That's beyond me. Either way, this isn't my problem." Besides, Reborn wouldn't let his student die of something so silly as a disease. Not even a Mafia Disease would be enough to off the Vongola heir. Nalea may be uninvested in Tsuna's future (officially) but Reborn would need his student to live until he was the Vongola Decimo.

"It's also called the 'embarrass yourself to death' disease," Reborn informed him cheerfully and with false helpfulness. "Victims die within two hours of the first symptoms, so I'd estimate you've got until around sunset. Too bad I don't have the cure."

Reborn was genuinely in the wrong profession to be of any use here. What Tsuna needed (and would obviously be provided with – he was Vongola after all) was a highly specialized Doctor. The only one Nalea could think of that even might be able to handle this disease was…

"Wait a second," she realize as a bucket of ice sank into her gut. "You don't mean _him_ do you?! Tsuna, you might prefer to just die rather than deal with that guy's creepiness," Nalea informed him seriously. "It's not worth your life, not in my opinion."

"He's not so bad," Reborn frowned at her.

"Hah! So says you! _You_ don't fit his profile," Nalea bit back nervously. "You wouldn't know. He isn't 'that bad' - he's worse! No: he's _the_ worst!"

Tsuna was more than a little intimidated at the idea of demanding help from someone who seemed to scare _Nalea_ , but he was sufficiently desperate to ask anyway. Naturally, and got shut down harshly, much to Nalea's amusement. Reborn said he wouldn't call his contact.

"Please?" Tsuna asked.

Nalea knew an opportunity for exploitation when she saw one and threw herself on it like a rabid wolf. "I'll call him if I get to stay over for your Mama's cooking at dinner for the next two weeks," Nalea demanded. Seeing Reborn's glare out the corner of her eye she tacked on, "and you have to get into the top ten on your next test." That seemed to appease the Hitman, thankfully.

Tsuna agreed and they finally started on their way home.

"You know him?" Reborn inquired, inviting information on Nalea's past. She noticed but dismissed it. Reborn wouldn't sneak any information out of her that he shouldn't be able to find out just by looking at her. She was female. It was relatively obvious the circumstances under which she met Shamal. That didn't mean she was going to tell Reborn about her past.

"I hate him," she corrected. "But I get Mama's cooking out of this so it might be worth it. Maybe. Mama's cooking _is_ very good, but that guy is very bad news for me."

They walked through the front door just in time to see Bianchi 'kill' Shamal and pin him against the wall with poison cooking. Unfortunately, it looked like he'd managed to protect his face.

"You want help with that?" Nalea offered her 'mother' just as Shamal won his way free.

"Nalea, my beautiful!" Shamal greeted, coming at her with arms open and lips pursed for a kiss. Frantically, Nalea neatly dislocated his shoulder and darted behind Tsuna, using him as a meat shield as she shuffled backwards towards the door to the kitchen where she would be relatively safe. Nalea peeked around the door frame and growled at the man like a cornered animal. Shamal, being a doctor, just popped his shoulder back in as though having a limb dislocated by someone with the ability (and probably inclination) to rip it off entirely was as commonplace as a paper cut.

When Shamal took a step forward Nalea threw down her most desperate card. "Bianchi! I will concede to being your daughter and _never_ fight you about that again if you just keep him _the fuck away from me!_"

Bianchi reared up like a poisonous mother bear and outright roared at the doctor, " _ **Do not touch my baby girl!**_ "

Shamal did what any normal pervert would do when put up against a rampaging wild animal. He created a person-shaped hole in the wall with the force Bianchi used to throw him.

Cautiously, Nalea peered out from around the kitchen door frame, eyes narrowed in caution. Tsuna was standing there, defeated. He hadn't gotten the chance to talk to Shamal at all yet and was still laboring under the impression that his life was genuinely in danger while no one else was taking it seriously. Reborn frowned at the girl who used Bianchi to get Shamal out of commission so quickly, albeit largely temporarily. (He might be called Trident Shamal for his mosquitoes, but anyone with any experience with the man knew he was about as hard to kill as a cockroach.)

"Well that got out of hand quickly," Nalea admitted sheepishly. "I told you I hated him. What made you think I could stay in the same space as him for any sort of extended period of time?"

Shamal pried himself out of the wall with surprising success, dusting plaster off his shoulders and strode towards Tsuna. "And who might you be?" He examined his prospective patient's chest carefully, coming up disappointed. "I don't treat men!" It may as well have been a catchphrase.

Nalea couldn't help but scoff at that, body safely hidden behind the wall. "You call that a man? He's a _child_. Just because he had dangly bits instead of a vagina and boobs is not a fact that indicates that he is a real man. Gender is socially constructed anyway, and what would you do if you met someone who was intersex or identified as third gender, huh?"

Shamal's sexist brain largely ignored her, especially when she violated his strict mental gender binary. "Even so, despite his unmanliness I will not treat him… my lovely-"

Nalea ducked completely behind the wall. "Oh fuck my life!"

When Shamal made to pursue her, Bianchi bit the proverbial bullet. To protect Nalea and to ensure that this disease killed Tsuna, thus freeing her love Reborn, Bianchi shouted out, "Shamal, if you can catch me you'll get a big kiss!" and bolted as fast as her highly trained legs could carry her.

Nalea supervised their pursuit from a distance, not taking the risk of accidentally walking into Shamal's line of sight. She knew full well what he wanted from her and she knew she'd rather die than give it up. Tsuna fell behind the two assassins when they jumped over a seven foot wall and started racing across the building roofs. Thus began a merry chase involving dynamite, setting violent assassin toddlers on a wild pervert and Haru's LOVE–LOVE DESTROYER ATTACK™. (Haru's attack apparently involved hula-hoops and yet still failed to win Nalea's love, to no one's surprise but her own.) They still did not catch him. Nalea thought it was kind of sad. Especially when Haru tackled the wrong guy. Tsuna was small and fragile. He was not designed for Haru level abuse.

Suddenly, the Baby Hitman frowned, though she continued her invisible tailing. Where had 'Tsuna was small and fragile' come from? He may be weak and vulnerable, but that did not obligate her to protect him from anything but the lethal or crippling threats denoted in her contract. He wasn't her problem outside of that and she didn't even want the contract in the first place! It had been forced on her by that filthy stinking rat bastard Sawada-teme!

Nalea knew that getting attached emotionally to the young Sky would do neither of them any good. Especially herself. Nalea _wanted_ a Sky, and Tsuna _was_ one. It would be easy to let those two separate facts blur together in her mind. But Tsuna was not the Sky for her, and that was assuming that she even had one out there. Most never found one, seeing as Skies were so rare. The likelihood of her finding one… well, Nalea was a realist and it wasn't exactly at the top of her life goals. (Nalea did not let herself think back to the boy called Enzio. She didn't let herself remember.)

And of course, now Tsuna would just have to associate his survival with Kyoko's sudden appearance. Thanks for nothing Trident Shamal, for fostering the Sawabaka's dependence on the girl who would obviously break his heart one day if things were left unchecked and for feeding his Oedipus complex. Obviously that was just what he needed. Really.

Despite the angsty and sarcastic monologue running through her mind, Nalea did not approach the Hitmen and fledgling Boss in the street below her hiding place. It wasn't worth exposing herself to Shamal and beyond that, she respected Reborn's decision. If Reborn decided that he was willing to use Kyoko to help boost Tsuna's confidence then Nalea would trust him to know what he was doing. Interfering had cost her a stalker last time and she was not willing to repeat that experience, thank you very much.

She would follow Reborn's lead when it came to the Sawabaka. And maybe everything would turn out okay in the end.

* * *

 **AN: As an apology for this chapter being so terribly short, I give you this Omake, set in the distant future. (But not the TYL future that gets time-traveled to, the actual future. The 'happily ever after' future.)**

* * *

Xanxus was in a truly foul mood. Granted, he was seemingly always in a 'bad' mood, but that was just his general set point. It was normal of him. But when something had him in an absolute snit? The Varia knew damn will to stay the fuck out of his way, scuttling through hallways as quickly as possible, just in case he managed to catch sight of anyone. Mere walls wouldn't save them if the Boss decided to open fire and they all knew that.

So when they saw the Vongola's Main Family Representative to the Varia, Virtuoso Nalea marching through the corridors with her head held high and even stride, most everyone snorted to themselves and expected to be getting a new Representative assigned soon. Bel was actually nice enough to try and warn her about what she was walking into, but she carelessly waved him off. He watched her go with a shrug. It would serve her right for ignoring him and she really needed to learn from her own mistakes anyway. That was the Prince Belphegor's opinion at least.

Nalea opened the door to Xanxus, the Varia Boss's personal private bedroom (as opposed to his public bedroom, which apparently was a thing he had for some reason Nalea refused to look too closely at because the answer probably involved Xanxus having sex and she still needed to be able to look the man in the eyes sometimes so it was better not to go conjuring those mental images) without fear. Xanxus did not shoot her. It wasn't until she threw open the curtains that she even got a reaction out of him. The windows, the surrounding walls and parts of both the floor and ceiling vanished with a single blast from Xanxus's X-Guns. Obviously, he slept with them. Nalea had fortunately (and unsurprisingly) had the common sense to dodge the instant she gave her position away in the silence and stillness of the room.

"Mini-Trash," Xanxus outright growled. It was a warning. It meant that if he was awake for anything less than the fucking apocalypse, then he might just start one anyway and make the effort of getting up worth it. Yes, Xanxus's growls and glares were that articulate. (It was a common language in the Mafia actually.)

"I have paperwork I need you to sign by this afternoon," she reported professionally, "and I am willing to negotiate."

A second X-Gun was leveled in her direction. Xanxus's flat stare indicated that he was not impressed, he did not care, and he was a heartbeat from killing her and just dealing with the Decimo's whining about it later.

Nalea's face was carefully neutral. Showing her cockiness would get her killed right now and she really should be more respectful of Xanxus's genuine ability to end her life than she was. "Did you know that Tsuna contracted an unfortunate case of Skullitis when he was younger, about thirteen?" Nalea asked. "This was back when he was Dame-Tsuna of course. Naturally, since I was his bodyguard at the time, I was obligated to stay with him while his life was endangered. He was minutes from death by the time we got him the proper medical help."

Xanxus's face read 'if this is true, I may spare your existence', though the X-Guns remained pointed at her steadily.

"I so happen to have a complete transcript of everything his skulls said while he was infected," Nalea chirped. "Furthermore, I don't care what sort of shitty little snit you've gotten your precious cuddly emotions in, I have a deadline to meet and now so do you. Are you willing to talk about that paperwork now?"

The Varia Officer Agents and a large smattering of their subordinates as well as the entirety of Cloud Division were all huddled near the Boss's bedroom door, mostly hiding behind Levi. As their Lightning, he was most likely to survive a direct hit by the Boss's X-Guns and was therefore elected as the group sacrifice for when bullets and Flames started flying. They didn't all fit properly and the Officer Agents got first pick on spots by virtue of being outright terrifying, but the rest of them tried to cower with their dignity intact.

Their awe increased the more time passed. Nalea had gone in and hadn't come back out yet, true, but there also hadn't been any sound of repeated gunfire or walls crumbling after that first shot. All indicators lead to her still being alive so far, since they all knew one shot was not enough to kill or likely even injure Nalea. The record length of time for anyone ever to survive being in the Boss's private bedroom was seventeen seconds. Nalea was going on twenty-three minutes, forty-eight seconds and counting. It was like some sort of miracle.

The large double doors opened and Nalea marched out, looking utterly unruffled, unsigned, and generally un-shot. (Her total time was thirty-five minute, twenty eight seconds.) Her folders were carried competently off to one side and her remaining hand was free to go to a weapon at the slightest provocation. About half the hallway collapsed backwards, reeling away out of some combination of relief, shock, awe and confusion. (The Varia Officers, of course, remained standing. They at least were Quality, damn it, and they would act like it!) Nalea raised a dainty eyebrow.

"Problem gentlemen?" she asked idly, obviously enjoying their reaction and not bothering to hide her amusement. Any moment now…

"How the fuck have you not been shot?" Squalo demanded. While Levi may claim the title of Right Hand, everyone knew that Squalo was the one that really fulfilled that position. If he though it was impossible to disturb the Boss at that time, then it should be fucking impossible.

"Honestly, I only needed this paperwork signed," she told them. "It's not like I just performed a miracle."

"I'll pay to find out what you did," Mammon offered (demanded).

"Not for all the money in the world," Nalea denied.

"The Prince will give you apple pie if you tell him the secret to not pissing off the Boss when he's in a bad mood," Bel offered.

"Very tempting. But not even then," Nalea shook her head. "Have a nice day." She walked right past them, stepping over and occasionally on fallen Varia members on her way.

Then the laughing started from behind the Boss's door- a deep, loud laughter that reverberated through the walls and echoed out the windows. It even sounded like Xanxus's voice. Squalo looked constipated.

Bel laughed. "Leave it to the littlest Principessa! Ushishishi~!"

"Mou~. Now I really want that secret," Mammon decided.

Lussuria was pleased by this turn of events. Nalea would fit right in around here and he knew it. (It was about time that the Main Family sent a Representative that didn't give up, die, mysteriously disappear or go insane within the first month and it was a bit of a relief to find one which would actually last.) Levi had sunk to the floor in a fit of depressed tears(and jealousy). This was just another event that reminded him of his resolve to kill Nalea with his bare hands. (At no point would he ever succeed.)

* * *

 **Tsuna's Brush with Skullitis:**

"How embarrassing! I've never kicked a soccer ball!"

"How embarrassing! I thought the World Cup was a kind of Ramen!"

"How embarrassing! I get sick on the swingset!"

"How embarrassing! I'm still afraid to stand on the top of the slide!"

"How embarrassing! I skip school on days we have to get shots!"

"How embarrassing! I bit my tongue in my sleep!"

"How embarrassing! I fainted in the haunted house at school!"

"How embarrassing! I get called 'Dame-Tsuna' even by a kindergartener!"

"How embarrassing! I'm in middle school and I'm still afraid to go to the bathroom at night!"

"How embarrassing! I once fell from a persimmon tree and ripped my pants!"

"How embarrassing! I once put my underwear on backward and wet my pants!"

"How embarrassing! I once spent a whole day with takoyaki bits in my teeth!"

"How embarrassing! I'm short but when we sit down I'm the tallest person in the class!"

"How embarrassing! I used to call elevators 'evalators'!"

"How embarrassing! I can't get the timing right to go on a descending escalator!"

"How embarrassing! I've never spoken that much to a girl I liked in my life!"


	8. The Days March On

**7 - The Days March On**

* * *

"Nalea-san, there you are!" Tsuna greeted, looking relieved.

"Yeah. Hi. Where did you think I would be?" Nalea asked.

Tsuna frowned. "I didn't see you this morning. I didn't know where you were and I was worried."

Nalea frowned, visibly confused even under the goggles that concealed her eyes. Having someone actually _worry_ about her… it was not something she had ever really needed to take into consideration before. Everyone either wanted her dead or knew her well enough that she was trusted to look after herself. It was an odd sort of feeling having Tsuna's concerned expression leveled at her. She wasn't quite sure what to do about it.

"Well I'm fine," she assured him, shrugging the unwelcome feelings away. "When I patrolled the town this morning and did a perimeter check I met a nice man in the middle of the forest and bought a meat bun for breakfast and had a lovely conversation about the benefits of fighting barehanded or with supplementary blunt-force weapons. That was nice. You?"

"Never mind." Tsuna firmly suspected that being part of the Mafia made you crazy and then attracted other insanity towards you. It was the only explanation.

His musings were interrupted by Lambo's appearance and consequential panic-inducing shout of, "MY ZIPPER'S BROKEN AND I CAN'T PEE!"

"Don't worry, I've got this one," Nalea interrupted, putting a hand over his mouth and cutting of his 'hie' scream. "Just don't get yourself killed while I'm gone, yeah? Hayato, you're in charge." By the smirk she shot him as she left, she had caused Gokudera's subsequent vocal and obvious vows of diligence and loyalty intentionally. Possibly so he couldn't wander off unsupervised. She was sneaky like that sometimes and Tsuna was only just starting to pick up on it.

Tsuna had only just barely managed to sooth Gokudera when Nalea-san reappeared carrying a beaming Lambo on her hip. "Don't you have something to say to Tsuna, Lambo?" she prompted.

"The great Lambo-sama brought your lunch!" the child reported proudly, holding out a green-wrapped bento. Nalea-san glowered over his shoulder as though saying, ' _if you don't accept that lunch, I'll beat you to death with your own arms_ '. It occurred to Tsuna vaguely that it was an oddly articulate glower for someone whose eyes couldn't be seen.

However, before he could respond, IPin appeared in the classroom doorway, doing a flip as she did so. "Dynamic entrance! Ni-hao," she greeted promptly.

Collectively, the classroom blinked at her, confused. "We'll work on that later and make some improvements," Nalea-san offered, smiling slightly. "Alright Kiddo?"

Rather than answer, IPin stole Tsuna's bento and bolted towards the stairs. Lambo didn't take it well. There was a mad scramble up to the roof, where Tsuna realized there were two lunches. Part of him was horrified to realize that he _wasn't_ all that surprised to hear one of them was full of nitroglycerin like he _would have been_ before Reborn showed up, but he was mostly just panicking about the seemingly inevitable impending explosion that would destroy the school. To his right, Nalea huffed and scooped Lambo up into her arms.

"Lambo, don't tease IPin," she scolded firmly. "You can't tell the boxes apart either. You did a good job getting the lunch here, but your job isn't done until Tsuna's eaten it. Don't shrug off your responsibility prematurely. IPin, get down from there, you should use your words and not just snatch-and-run. We are your friends, not the enemy. While I commend your initiative to correct this confusion, you are allowed to ask for help."

"IPin sorry," she confessed in her broken Japanese, hopping down from her vantage point. "IPin bad at words in Japan."

Nalea crouched down, setting Lambo on the ground next to her. " _It's okay_ ," she said in Chinese, baffling most of her watchers, " _You can just speak in Chinese to me and then I can translate. If you want I can help you with your Japanese or any other language you want to learn. But for now let's get those lunches sorted, okay?_ "

Tsuna nearly collapsed in relief that the situation had been resolved so quickly. "What would I do without you, Nalea-san?" he asked earnestly

"Die." She told him frankly, handing him his lunch with a deadpan expression. "Definitely die."

Of course, that was when Hibari showed up, IPin got embarrassed, Tsuna got shot in the head and things blew up anyway. But Tsuna tried not to think about that part. It was too mentally scarring for him to deal with right then.

* * *

Nalea wasn't even sure why she had been invited to the Babysitting Lambo competition or why it was even a 'competition' in the first place, but she had been. She did not question that seeing as she needed to supervise Tsuna anyway. She did, however, still have a question.

"Okay, Reborn, you're _clearly_ a great Panda," she began, "but is Bianchi- I mean, is _mom_ a kangaroo or a squirrel?" (She didn't even bother asking _why_ the two highly skilled professional hitmen were dressed as animals and just accepted that part.)

Hayato gave her a strange, confused and suspicious sort of look, glancing between his sister and 'niece'. "Squirrel," he nodded, "Definitely squirrel."

"They should switch," Nalea decided. "Squirrels should always be smaller than pandas – unless they're mutated, but let's not get into that."

Hayato shot her a look that clearly indicated, 'what you're saying is stupid, and this entire meeting is stupid, shut up and get me out of here'. Nalea merely offered him her best 'suffer with me or abandon your precious Tenth, you quitter' smirk in return. He was not amused.

"By the way, the babysitter also gets to be the Boss's Right Hand," Reborn added.

"I- I really love Lambo," Hayato ground out. It looked like it physically hurt him to say that.

"Remind me why I'm competing?" Nalea asked him, watching the pained expression Hayato made as he interacted with Lambo in his least-violent manner. (Hayato wasn't very good at this 'no-violence' stuff, but for the Tenth he would try!)

"Because you're bored and you need to protect Tsuna anyway," Reborn informed her bluntly.

The Baby Hitman sighed but it sounded resigned. "I've said it before and I'll say it again. I hate him. I hate him so fucking much." Reborn didn't bother with a response to that.

Hayato's attempt to be nice to Lambo was doomed to fail. Ryohei ordering Lambo to smile was also doomed to fail and actually made the poor boy cry instead of laugh.

"Disqualified," Reborn announced.

"Well, it made _me_ laugh," Nalea chuckled. "That's something." Laughing hadn't come easily to her for a long time. It felt nice. "Thanks Ryohei-nii-san."

"Extremely no problem, Leah-imoto!"

Yamamoto blasted Lambo into a concrete wall with his pitching skills. And then Haru showed up.

"You made Lambo cry!" the middle schooler accused, full of righteous anger, "Even you, Leah-chan!" There was a dramatic pose and literal finger-pointing involved, much to Nalea's consternation.

"Yes," the young Hitman agreed seriously, "I'm a horrible person. You should move on. Also," her aura turned dark and threatening, crackling with controlled anger, " _you_ do not have permission to call me… _that_ ever again. And I mean ever." No one had the right to call her Leah. Not here. She had granted permission to Ryohei, but not to anyone else and she had every intention of maintaining that distance for as long as it took. That name may as well be dead as far as she was concerned. There was no one left to use it on her. Plus, being called '-chan'… that part was just weird.

Haru of course ignored her largely while crushing Lambo in indignation, making the poor kid freak out and use the Ten Year Bazooka.

Haru made a break for it screaming, "He's totally sexed up!" and making Nalea laugh even harder than Ryohei's demands for Lambo to smile had. Bianchi mistook Lambo for her ex, Romeo and unleashed her Poison Cutter.

"Oh honestly, you're all completely hopeless," Nalea announced, thoroughly fed up with everyone else's incompetence when dealing with a child. "Lambo, sweetheart, you dropped your horn."

Adult Lambo looked up at her. "L-Leah-nee-san?" he asked with tears building up in his eyes.

Nalea revised her previous internal monologue. Lambo could call her whatever he wanted, he was too cute to say no to, even in TYL form. "Don't worry, Kiddo. I won't let these idiots infect you with their stupid."

The fifteen year old buried his face into Nalea's neck, hiding his face in her hair. " _I miss hugging you like this_ ," he mumbled in Italian.

" _Don't worry, little one. I'm here and you can hug me until you go_ ," she assured him, matching his choice of language. " _I'm still right here_."

She very carefully chose not to contemplate the implications of Lambo's reaction to her for two reasons. Firstly, he recognized her. That meant she stuck around long enough for a five year old to maintain a lasting and permanent impression of her as a stable elder sister figure. She didn't want to stay that long, even if it meant leaving Lambo. Secondly, if she were still alive ten years into the future, there was nothing that would stop her from hugging him like this. Absolutely nothing. So ten years in the future she was either dead, captured or otherwise incapacitated. Maybe she lost both her arms or something like that. Whatever. Worrying about the future wouldn't do her any good, and she didn't have enough information to make an informed decision so it was best to do nothing and be alert.

Lambo poofed back into his child-form with a cloud of pink smoke and Nalea caught him gently and settled him on her hip before he could fall to the ground. "Have a good trip?" she asked him lightly. Lambo just nodded up at her and curled closer. Nalea smiled gently. She was so soft on kids.

"Nalea, you are the best suited to babysit Lambo," Reborn announced with an air of finality. She couldn't tell if he had overheard the elder Lambo's words, but chose not to acknowledge them herself.

"Obviously," Nalea replied scornfully. "I already babysit the Sawabaka for you. It's not much different, easier actually since there are fewer assassins involved. Oh, and I abdicate my position of Right Hand to Hayato. I'm still not in the Family and you can't make me join."

"Understood."

Why did she get the distinct impression that Reborn was still scheming under that excessively stylish fedora of his?

* * *

When they finally made it home that day, nearly everyone panicked.

Nearly everyone.

"Shammal's got the nitro," Nalea warned them, taking several strides forward with quick efficiency and punching him in the face. The Hitman was unconscious instantly, only having the time to release a single mosquito. "Problem solved," Nalea reported, even as her eyes followed the insect from behind her goggles. One hand shot out and caught it out of the air, crushing it in one go. "Damn insect could have bitten one of the children without him conscious enough to direct it, the sloppy fool. Like a little bug like that could have killed me anyway - he should know that by now," she muttered. "You'd have to try something else if you want to off me, perverted old man. Nothing to worry about anymore- except… IPin, sweetheart, weren't you supposed to be delivering this?"

"IPin is sorry for trouble," the little Chinese girl apologized in her broken Japanese. "IPin take now!"

Nalea smiled softly as she knelt down. " _Kiddo, it's already getting dark out,_ " she told the young assassin in perfect Mandarin, " _You had best spend the night here and set out in the morning. I know your Shisho is counting on you to make the delivery, but he did not give you a deadline and I'm sure he wouldn't want you getting lost in the dark. Okay?_ "

IPin considered this before nodding.

"You're babysitting IPin too," Reborn informed her.

Nalea just scowled at the boys in the room. "You're all idiots if you think separating them from other children their own age and with similar skill sets is good for them in this developmental stage. The kids are mine!"

"Does this make my sister a grandmother?" Hayato asked without thinking.

Nearly everyone visibly paled at the thought. Yamamoto was still just smiling and Reborn concealed whatever reaction he had expertly, though Nalea wasn't at his level yet. The idea of 'Grandma' Bianchi… reacting to her daughter having a child… reacting to Lambo as her grandchild… especially with that Bazooka… Absolutely not. (Nalea did not want to know what sort of mad stories Bianchi would create in her head about Love, Romeo and her 'daughter' in order to come to that conclusion.)

"...We must not let her find out about this," Nalea announced with utter finality. "She won't take it well. This must not come to pass."

"Agreed," Hayato nodded desperately.

For the first time in his life, Tsuna channeled his inner Boss Voice. "We will never speak of this again," he ordered. No one even thought of disobeying him. Though, Reborn did start thinking of ways to get Tsuna to use his Boss Voice again.

* * *

The next morning when Nalea arrived at the Sawada residence, she noticed that Tsuna was running late an when she went up to his room to drag him up kicking and screaming so she wouldn't be late for her Disciplinary Committee duties, she discovered him having a strange dream. And he talked in his sleep. She just thanked whatever deities existing that it wasn't a wet dream. That would have been super awkward. Even so, "I did _not_ come here to see you have a weird dream, Sawabaka. Although… if you want Haru you can have her."

"No thanks," Tsuna denied instantly.

"PLEASE!" Nalea demanded, leaning in way too close to his face.

"HIE!" Tsuna screeched, "NO!"

Nalea leaned back and frowned at him. "I don't know whether to be pleased that you had the balls to say 'no' to me," she murmured, "or pissed that I still have to deal with Haru…"

Reborn smirked to himself. His student was growing some backbone. Granted, it wasn't much and Nalea hadn't been making an earnest attempt to force him into anything, but it was still more willpower than he could have shown without Reborn's influence.

"If you want Kyoko," Reborn interjected, "you have to say something to her."

"No." Well, that was expected. But hardly insurmountable.

"I could shoot you with the Dying Will Bullet," Reborn offered. He wouldn't really, not for something like this, but he wanted to test Tsuna's reaction. It was good to flaunt his growth in front of Nalea. Reborn wanted her as one of the young Sky's Guardians. Regardless of what she thought of their compatibility, he could work through that.

"No, I'd rather tell her myself," Tsuna decided. As per Reborn's expectation.

Nalea didn't bother concealing her surprise at that, nor her semi-pleased, semi-amused smirk. "Heh," she acknowledged. No more was said on the subject.

* * *

The first time Tsuna tried, and failed, to ask out Sasagawa Kyoko was at the front of the school. Ryohei interrupted them and Tsuna took off like a racehorse.

"Oh, nice running form," Ryohei complemented as the scrawny boy bolted.

"Yeah, he's improved a lot recently," Nalea admitted quietly. _It's not enough_.

* * *

The second time Tsuna tried, and failed, to ask out Sasagawa Kyoko was at lunch Yamamoto and Hayato had wanted to eat with him.

"Were you planning to ask Sasagawa to lunch?" Yamamoto realized belatedly, "I guess I messed that up for you."

"If he gets up the courage that is," Nalea smirked into her bento. She noticed that she had taken to eating closer to them than she had in the beginning of the school year. Nalea also told herself it was just because she didn't like sitting alone and refused to examine the feeling closer than that.

"Is that so? I'm rooting for you, Juudaime!" Hayato cheered.

"You're very popular, Tsuna," Reborn observed, popping out of nowhere as usual, "With your men."

Nalea switched into Russian to respond, not wanting the others to understand and knowing that it was a language Hayato hadn't learned yet and Reborn probably had. " _Maybe he should just switch his focus to men_ ," she suggested slyly.

" _Vongola needs an heir by blood_ ," Reborn disagreed, but chose to play along. He even used the Russian word for 'clam' instead of the Italian so that their eavesdroppers wouldn't pick up on it and be able to make a guess as to what they were talking about.

" _There are ways, you know that_ ," Nalea reminded him. " _Besides, Tsuna's at least 90% for the guys. Everything about the guy screams uke and you know it. Kyoko's probably just a subconscious fluke to mask his budding 'abnormal' sexuality crossed with a sleight Oedipus Complex, given the resemblance she has to Mama._ "

" _He'll figure it out on his own eventually_ ," Reborn shrugged. " _Right now it's just about him getting the courage to ask a girl out. It's juvenile, but he can only be pushed so quickly_."

" _True. True_."

"You speak Russian?" Hayato asked.

"Obviously," Nalea pointed out. "Russian is one of my favorite languages, it comes easily. So do most languages actually. I guess I've got a gift now that I think about it."

"How many languages do you speak, Nalea-chan?" Yamamoto asked.

Nalea was surprised to realize she didn't mind that form of address coming from him and unsurprised to decide that absolutely no on else must ever be allowed to call her that. "I'm not sure how many, I've never counted. Let's see… Italian, English, Japanese, Russian, French, Chinese, German, Irish, Latin, Hindi, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese… Uh… Vietnamese, Korean… Thai, Polish, Turkish… Romanian, Dutch, Czech, Swedish… Zulu… and I think that's it. Mind you, I'm not _literate_ or _fluent_ in many of them, but the major ones yeah. That's twenty-three. Why?"

"How did you even learn all that?" Tsuna asked, gaping at her. The other two weren't far behind and even Reborn was silently impressed by the age at which she had learned it all. She was only thirteen.

"Information runs the world," Nalea affirmed with certainty. "Be a shame if something got lost in translation and we started heading in the wrong direction… Back to Tsuna's love life or lack thereof?"

* * *

The third time Tsuna tried, and failed, to ask out Sasagawa Kyoko was at the market. It was also when Nalea employed her most devious and vaguely silly ploy to dispose of her stalker and redirect her where she should have been chasing all along.

The instant she saw Haru coming, (and of course she spotted her first) Nalea whipped a blonde wig onto Tsuna's had and scrambled up the side of a building, leaving a stunned and confused Tsuna behind her as a sacrificial lamb. From her vantage point she watched closely and crossed her fingers, concentrating intensely.

"You really think that'll work?" Reborn asked her, appearing as though from thin air.

Nalea did not break her concentration. "No, but she isn't very bright and it is worth a shot." Nalea channeled her Mist Flames through her crossed fingers. She'd been taught that some weaker users needed a medium or a gesture to make their Flames flow externally and she was one of them. She'd chosen her gesture back when she was too young to realize how childish crossed fingers looked but it was too late to take back now because the mental training had already set in. (This was why Mukuro and later Chrome had a habit of conjuring a trident even when casting illusions at a distance. It acted as a focus for their Flames.)

"Hahi?! Tsuna-san was pretending to be Nalea-san this whole time?!"

Poor, poor Tsuna; she was his problem now. And none of his protests would work either because the illusion had already been planted. The likelihood of Haru having enough mental discipline to break an illusion, even a weak one, without significant coaching was so negligible that Nalea didn't need to worry about it. She released the illusion. Now that it had taken root it no longer needed any fuel to support it.

"I can't _believe_ that just worked," she admitted, stunned but proud of her success.

"Only because you added some Mist Flames," Reborn reminded her. "You never struck me as a Mist."

"They're actually a tertiary," she shrugged. "That right there was pretty much my limit. I can only manipulate perceptions to a certain extent, not conjure completely. You've seen my main Flame, it was on my contract. Besides, aren't you glad that I fixed it? The Obsession is transferred to where you wanted it to be in the first place. Let's just hope it doesn't wear off or anything. And that nobody decides to break the illusion."

Reborn had wanted to ask more about Nalea's Flames, especially because she had used the phrase 'a tertiary', implying that she had at least three Useful Flame Types. If her third strongest Flame was still strong enough to be Useful, Reborn couldn't wait to see what she could do if she really cut loose, even as young, unrefined and inexperienced as she was.

* * *

Nalea stared at the girls and their 'self-appreciation day tradition' of eating cake with a complete deadpan expression. "I'd like to state, for the record, that this is not something I've ever heard of before and that this is clearly something only shallow, vain girls who count their calories participate in. Please do not consider those two as representative of my gender. I'd take offense."

"Do you always keep a running commentary when you spy on people?" Reborn asked her passive-aggressively. Outright aggression just wasn't worth the effort and it was actually somewhat amusing to hear her thoughts on things.

"Only when they're this boring," she admitted. "It's like watching a soap opera. I'm waiting for someone's evil twin who supposedly died at birth to pop up and impersonate somebody."

Now that was just going too far. Evil twins could throw the line of succession into conflict and it was better not to even contemplate something like that. As punishment… "You're coming to their tea party."

"M'kay," Nalea grumbled as she looked down, scuffing her steel-reinforced boots against the rooftop beneath her. "Sorry for annoying you."

As she should be.

* * *

And that was how Nalea found herself eating cake of all infernal creations in a room with a professional Hitman, a fledgling Boss, two middle school girls and Adult Lambo. She was not impressed. Apparently neither was Tsuna.

"The Young Vongola doesn't know how to treat the Ladies, huh? Women are like kittens possessed by mysterious appetites," Lambo informed them, nodding wisely.

"Kittens? Really?" Tsuna asked.

"Uh… maybe _pregnant_ women," Nalea disagreed. "Otherwise our taste buds are perfectly normal, thank you very much."

Adult Lambo stared at Nalea looking increasingly uncomfortable. "No comment," he decided, turning away quickly. She narrowed her eyes at him and he flinched, making her more suspicious. (She wasn't at all surprised that he could detect the narrowness of her eyes even behind the goggles concealing them. It was important to by that type of perceptive in the Mafia.) She didn't ask though. It was better not to know what the future might hold.

IPin offered her favored gyoza buns as a show of gratitude for the cakes she received. Nalea, Kyoko and Haru gratefully accepted. The two of the three collapsed over sideways onto the floor.

Nalea just watched them keel over and snorted. "Weaklings," she muttered darkly.

"They're dying," Reborn announced. "The gyoza buns used for Gyoza Kenpo are said to be comprised of the essence of five million normal gyoza buns."

"They certainly taste about five million times better. This is some yummy food right here," Nalea interjected happily, subtly stealing the gyoza buns from the two unconscious and dying girls. They obviously weren't going to eat them anytime soon. "Let me guess, we have to save them?" she added.

"Obviously!" Tsuna demanded, "They'll die if we don't save them!"

Nalea shot him an odd look. "It's not like it's a big deal since I kill people for a living. They're not even that important in the grand scheme of things… then again, poor Ryohei-nii-san loves his sister very much. Damn." Nalea shrugged in defeat, getting to her feet and scarfing the last of the available gyoza buns. I guess I'll help then."

"Don't you care?!" Tsuna asked.

"I'm a Hitman, albeit a young one. Letting them die would simplify my life without me even having to kill them," Nalea stated simply, " _but_ I already said I'd help, didn't I? Get off your moral high horse. People die all the time. You don't see Reborn or Bianchi freaking out. Now instead of lecturing me about the value of human life, how's about you start saving them, eh?"

Unfortunately IPin had only one dose of the antidote. "IPin sorry," the young assassin confessed, looking upset.

"It's okay, sweetie, we can just save Kyoko and let Haru slip away. It doesn't even look like it hurts," Nalea offered the young assassin comfortingly. "It could have been a lot worse. At least we can save one of them."

"No! That's _not good enough!_ We save them both!" Tsuna shouted.

Nalea looked at him in surprise before smirking. "Maybe you really will be a Boss someday," she admitted quietly before challenging him much more loudly, "You can say whatever you want, but there's nothing you can do to change this, is there?" As Tsuna was shot with a Dying Will Bullet and revived himself Nalea made an observation and confided it to Reborn, "You'd think he'd buy himself some less embarrassing underwear if he knew this sort of thing could happen to him at any time, but no."

* * *

It took a lot of running and a spontaneous kidnapping of several street vendors, but Tsuna eventually found Fon and got the antidote in time. Nalea-san ensured that IPin was given some extra doses to help avoid any future mishap too. Once was enough in Tsuna's opinion so he was glad she had thought of that.

As Tsuna watched both girls struggle awake, he quietly and silently gave up on ever asking Kyoko out. It just wasn't in the cards right now and he'd rather enjoy what he had while he still could.

Reborn's voice broke into his thoughts harshly, "That's called having no guts."

"How did you know what I was thinking?!" Tsuna asked, terrified of what else Reborn might magically know.

The Hitman just smirked. "I can read minds."

Nalea gave her usual close-mouthed smile meant to imply that she was amused, but under her goggles her eyes were sad. If Reborn really could read minds… then all of her problems would be solved. Assuming of course, that he was one of the good guys. But Nalea knew better than to try and tell him, at least not directly. She just didn't have that kind of problem. She couldn't just get a higher authority to solve things for her, she needed to go through this by herself. She had a plan, and it could work. But she couldn't pretend it would be easy on her.

"What's got you so down, Nalea?" Reborn asked.

She shook her head. "It's not your problem, Reborn. I'll figure it out on my own."

"Hmm."


End file.
